Dr. Leroy U. Gardner to Sumner Simpson on Difficulties with Intravenous Injection of Asbestos (1937)

A one-page signed letter of October 18, 1937, from Dr. Leroy U. Gardner, director of Saranac Laboratory, to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan. Gardner wrote: "We are still floundering in difficulties with the intravenous injection of asbestos." The problem involved "not only asbestos but a few of the other silicates," and would need a physicist and a petrographer; he planned to put the whole subject to Dr. Langmuir. "These findings may or may not have a direct bearing on the problem of asbestosis. They are too striking to be disregarded but their exact significance is problematic, to say the least."

What it shows

The letter appears to answer Simpson's request of October 14 for more on the Harvard College sample that had killed Gardner's animals on injection (Simpson to Brown, September 27, 1937). Gardner gave no explanation yet, only that the findings were "too striking to be disregarded." A handwritten note on the letter sends a copy to Vandiver Brown, which Simpson did on October 23 (Simpson to Brown).

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Reports problems with injections of asbestos and other silicates. Plans to have physicist and petrographer in to look at problem. Will send information as soon as it is available.

Related documents

• Sumner Simpson to Vandiver Brown on Gardner's Early Results and the Harvard Sample (1937)
• Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson on the Harvard Asbestos Sample That Killed Gardner's Animals (1937)
• Sumner Simpson to Vandiver Brown Sending Gardner's October 18 Letter (1937)
• Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson Acknowledging Gardner's Letter on the Injection Experiments (1937)

About this copy

This is document 03365 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.