Joseph Needham : Letter from Joseph Needham to Dorothy Needham, 15 August 1952

Needham, Joseph, 1900-1995

Joseph Needham

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This letter belongs to a collection of letters from Joseph Needham to Dorothy Needham while he was a member of the International Commission on Bacteriological Warfare in China and Korea in 1952. Written from the Peking Hotel, it describes his changing role from liaison to taking a central position in the Commission and responsibility for writing the report. Other matters include an analysis of the procedures of the Commission and the abilities of its members, also concerns about reaction to the report, public criticism of the Dean of Canterbury, and defence of the facts presented in the report. He states ‘So perhaps I shall have done 3 good things for China in my life, the SBSCO, the ISCIBW and HOS (I mean S and CiC).’ Also news of friends such as Rewi Alley, the bacteriologist Fang Kang [Fang Gang 方綱], and the gynaecologist Yen Jen-Ying [Yan Renying 嚴仁英]. There are two signed copies, one sent to Jaap and Wily [Cohen] and one to Holland. One letter includes a handwritten note dated 15 Aug. 1952 to be given to FGY entitled ‘Suggestions and proposals. Metabolic Integration, Regulation and Adaptation in Multicellular Organisms’.</p>