Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson on Dr. Lynch's Comments on Gardner's Second Progress Report (1938)

A one-page letter of May 18, 1938, from Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's general attorney, to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, thanking him for a copy of a letter from "your Charleston doctor" commenting on Dr. Gardner's second progress report. Brown thought Dr. Lynch had made "a very thoughtful analysis," but wrote: "We cannot draw any conclusions upon the basis of the experiments to date other than that any conclusions would be premature." Despite Gardner's references to "the apparent trend of the results," Brown believed Gardner felt the same way.

What it shows

Dr. Kenneth M. Lynch, the Charleston, South Carolina, pathologist, had written in his letter of May 6 that the only thing that could yet be stated for certain was that enough exposure to asbestos dust causes asbestosis in people. Simpson sent Brown a copy on May 17 (Simpson to Brown). Brown had welcomed the second progress report from Dr. Leroy Gardner of Saranac Laboratory (April 18, 1938); here he answered Lynch's reading by saying that no conclusions could yet be drawn.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes this document as follows:

Acknowledges receipt of letter dated 5/17/38. Emphasize that conclusions can not be draw on experiments yet, they would be premature.

Related documents

• Sumner Simpson to Vandiver Brown Enclosing Dr. Lynch's Letter (1938)
• Dr. Kenneth Lynch to Julian Mitchell on Gardner's Fine-Dust Findings (1938)
• Leroy U. Gardner, Second Progress Report on Experimental Asbestosis (1938)
• Leroy Gardner to Sumner Simpson on Dr. Lynch's Comments and His Asbestosis Cases (1938)

About this copy

This is document 03480 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.