WAKSMAN, SELMAN A. (1888-1973). Russian-born microbiologist and winner of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis. TLS. (“Selman A. Waksman”). 1p. 4to. New Brunswick, December 9, 1933. Written on State of New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station letterhead to Dr. Cornelia L. Carey of Columbia University.

“I am in receipt of your letter of December 7, and your enclosed notes on the alginic acid decomposing organisms.

I have had Mr. Renn make stain preparations of the four organisms and prepare photographic plates of them. The plates came out exceptionally well. They show very clearly that #4 and #10 are practically the same organisms, while #2 and #17 are quite different. Your own observations, as well as decomposition studies, seem to bear out the same thing.

As I mentioned in one of my previous letters, we have started an experiment here with these four organisms, using both sea water and sodium chloride solution in order to check up again some of the results of your experiments, and especially in order to determine the formation of the humus like complex in sea water media by these particular organisms. I find that #17 does not grow at all, just as you had in your first experiment. However, the other three organisms grow very beautifully and I hope we will complete that experiment sometime next week. I shall send you the results and I hope that we may be able to locate the source of the discrepancy in regard to the organic matter in solution.

I shall look forward to seeing you in Boston and at our home soon after the New Year. With kindest regards, I am, Very sincerely yours…”

Though best known for his role in developing antibiotic treatments for diseases including tuberculosis, much of Waksman’s research was done in the field of marine bacteriology. It was while working as a microbiology professor at Rutgers University, that Waksman helped form the Marine Bacteriology division at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1931.

The recipient of our letter, Dr. Cornelia L. Carey, was a botany professor at Barnard College and research associate in marine bacteriology at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Waksman and Carey co-authored several articles together including “Marine Bacteria and Their Rôle in the Cycle of Life in the Sea: I. Decomposition of Marine Plant and Animal Residues By Bacteria,” which appeared in the August 1933 issue of The Biological Bulletin, “Decomposition Of Nitrogenous Substances In Sea Water By Bacteria,” in the April 13, 1934 issue of Science and “Decomposition of Nitrogenous Substances in Sea Water by Bacteria,” in the May 1938 issue of the Journal of Bacteriology. Our letter also mentions another of Carey and Waksman’s frequent collaborators in scientific research, C. E. Renn.

Folded into thirds and in fine condition.