| Administrative History | According to the correspondence, Joshua Harold Burn (1892 - 1981) was British Editor of 'Physiological Reviews' [see letter dated 23 December 1950], and Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology at Oxford. |
| Description | Correspondence, regarding the exchange of reprints, and Burn's and Kosterlitz's respective research and work.
Letters, dated 22 March 1952 (from Kosterlitz) and 23 June 1953 (from Burn), mention the fact that Edith Bulbring was working with Burn.
Letter, dated 18 June 1952, from Kosterlitz, says that he has been 'considering whether it would be possible for me to become a member of the Pharmacological Society' and asks Burn if he would consider Kosterlitz a suitable candidate and sponsor him. Letter, dated 4 July 1952, from Burn, says: 'I will certainly propose you for membership of the Pharmacological Society'. Letter, dated 14 April 1955, says that Kosterlitz is still considering whether he should try to become a member of the Pharmacological Society, and asks again whether Burns would sponsor him. Correspondence, dated 23 April 1955 to 4 May 1955, mentions Kosterlitz's application to gain membership of the Pharmacological Society, and letter, dated 27 January 1956, from Kosterlitz, says that he has been elected a member of the Society.
Letter, dated 5 March 1953, from Kosterlitz, saying that he 'received an invitation from Professor [Otto] Krayer to go to Harvard from September, 1953 until January, 1954 and do some work with him on the effects of preganglionic and post - ganglionic sympathetic denervation on the responses of cardiac muscle to sympathomimetic drugs'. Letter also says that 'The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland has given me a grant which will defray the cost of my stay at Boston but not the cost of travel to the U.S.A. I therefore intend to apply for a Fulbright grant and wonder whether I may use your name as one of the three references required in the application'. Letter, dated 6 March 1953, from Burn, agreeing to Kosterlitz using his name as a referee in his application for a Fulbright Grant. Letter, dated 11 June 1953, from Kosterlitz, mentioning that he had been awarded a Fulbright Travel Grant and thanking Burn for his help regarding the application.
Corrrespondence, dated 11 June - 22 June 1953, regards Miss Robinson filling the post of Junior Research Fellow at the Physiology Department, Marischal College, Aberdeen.
Letter, dated 28 August 1971, from Burn to Kosterlitz, says, 'I think the hypothesis is now about to become a theory. You may be interested to know that Otto Loewi accepted the hypothesis before his death ... Then Heymans also thought the hypothesis was right, as he told me in Prague at the Congress there. So two Nobel Prize winners thought it was right. Lastly Philip Bard accepted the evidence, and I was invited to Johns Hopkins to give a Herter Lecture. I have a letter from Philip Bard saying he was convinced ... '.
Reply letter from Kosterlitz, dated 10 September 1971, which mentions, 'I am still neutral as far as the change from cholinergic link hypothesis to theory is concerned'.
Includes copy of a letter from Burn to Kosterlitz, dated 28 May 1972, thanking Kosterlitz for going to the dinner in Worcester College, which was arranged to celebrate Burn's eightieth birthday. Letter says, 'I was asked the other day how many people accept the hypothesis of Burn and Rand about the mode of release of noradrenaline. I have letter s from the following stating their agreement. (1) Otto Leowi, (written 24 March 1960). (2) Philip Bard (2 June 1967). (3) U. S. von Euler (23 Feb. 1971) (4) Ragnar Granit (July 1971). Then Heymans came to me at the Congress in Prague in 1963, just after I had given a summary at the Opening Meeting. He said "You must go on with this; I think you are right". The evidence which has made the hypothesis acceptable to many is that of Eranko. (See Nature, 1971. 231. 237.)'.
Letter, dated 5 October 1976, from Kosterlitz replying to Burn's handwritten letter of 29 September 1976, defining 'ligand' and 'opioid'. Kosterlitz writes, 'The term "ligand" is used in this context to describe a chemical agent which will combine with a receptor, irrespective of whether this agent is an agonist or antagonist. Thus, both acetylcholine and atropine are ligands of the muscarinic receptor. Opioid is a word I personally do not like but it is widely used by our American colleagues. For a long time I held out for morphine - like (not in structure but in action) but have been completely outvoted'.
There are a number of gaps in the correspondence: there is only one letter from 1951, dated 4 January 1951, and no correspondence from July 1953 to January 1955. Also gaps between January - March 1952; March - June 1952; July - December 1952; May 1955 and January 1956; between January 1956 and June 1963 [?except for letter, dated 21 May ?1961 from Burn]; June 1963 and January 1964; January 1964 and October 1965; October 1965 and April 1966; May 1966 and March 1970; March - September 1970; September 1970 and January 1971; January - September 1971; September 1971 and May 1972; May 1972 and June 1975, and 1975 and 1976. |