Letters Sent, no date

HARVARD UNIVERSITY School of Public Health 55 Van Dyke Street Department of Physiology Boston, Massachusetts Mr. Arthur Roeder, United States Radium Corporation, 30 Church Street, New York City. My dear Mr. Roeder: Your letter of March 12 is very interesting. I have had opportunity to discuss it with some of my associates here and we are inclined to feel that the two occurrences which you mention have been coincidences. At the same time we are agreed that it is not at all safe to permit any conviction upon that point without a rather complete examination. If you are anxious to go into the matter through me I feel that the best plan of procedure would be for me to make a visit to your plant in Orange and see the actual work these girls are doing and talk there with whoever it is who saw the fatal case. I have found that in matters of this kind I do better if I get such medical facts as are available from the individuals who have seen the condition which is under suspicion. After making such a visit as this it is possible we could do something with the powder here which would give us an opinion of its toxicity. Should you care to enter such a program as this I could arrange to come to New York sometime during the first two weeks in April. I would rather not set the date at once but could give at least five days notice. Needless to say there will be some expense attached to even this preliminary examination, but you may rest assured this will not be great and that if in my opinion it is wise to go into the matter very thoroughly it will be possible to give you an estimate as to cost before entering such a task. Very sincerely yours, Cecil K. Drinker Cecil K. Drinker, M.D. Professor of Physiology