ADDINALL
Dr. Carl Addinall
(Interviewed by Dr E L Milford at Merck Laboratories, 126 Lincoln Avenue, Rahway,
New Jersey. 10 May 1962)
Dr. Milford: Dr. Addinall, we wish to thank you for granting us this interview. As you
know, the Lederle management - Dr. Malcolm, Dr. Parker, and Dr. Williams -have a
personal and collective interest in a biography of Dr. SubbaRow being written by Mr.
Gupta of the Press Trust of India News Service. The Lederle management is also
presently working on a documentary film on Dr. SubbaRow, to be shown in India.
At the request of our public relations, I have been collaborating with Mr. Gupta in
supplying him with data that would assist him in writing the pre-Lederle phase of his
scientific life, that is, his association with Harvard Medical School.
Mr. R. Swamy, of our India subsidiary, has suggested that Mr. Gupta come to the
United States at the expense of the American Cyanamid Company, if' and when he
feels that such a trip will enable him to finalize his plans.
Do you care to re-state how Mr. Gupta happened to write to you for information on
Dr. SubbaRow? Did he mention the fact that we, the Archives, sent him a Photostat
copy of a letter to Dr. SubbaRow from you?
Dr. Addinall: According to a letter of 24, April, 1962, Mr. Gupta had received from the
Lederle Company, a letter from Dr. E. P. Kohler, and two from a Mr. C. R. Addinall.
There were also four letters written by Dr. Tishler about his work in the Congress
Memorial Laboratories. Apparently, Mr. Gupta was unaware of the personality or the
position of Dr. Tishler until he happened to read a Merck publication "By Their
Fruits", which had been distributed at the press conference in Bombay by Dr.
Waxier. From this, he became aware that Dr. Tishler was president of the Merck
Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in New Jersey. Accordingly, he wrote to Dr.
Tishler and asked for information concerning his acquaintance with Dr. SubbaRow
and of the acquaintance of Dr. Addinall with Dr. SubbaRow. At the time of the receipt
of this letter, Dr. Tishler was about to leave for a .vacation, and accordingly, sent a
copy of Gupta's letter to Tishler to Dr. Addinall, with the statement, "I would like to
suggest that you write to Dr. Carl R. Addinall, also of Merck Sharp and Dohme
Research Laboratories.” Dr. Addinall, who was a student of Professor Kohler, had
previously served in India as a Captain in the Indian Amy during World War I. Dr.
Addinall and Dr. SubbaRow were good friends." That is the position. What I would
like to do is to tell you what I personally know about the Harvard days and the preLederle days of Dr. SubbaRow and we’ll leave it to Dr. Tishler and to Mrs. Tishler,
who also knew Dr. SubbaRow very well, to tell you anything more that they may
know that I do not know.
Dr. Milford: It is certainly very gracious on your part, Dr. Addinall, and this is exactly
the line that we will follow. As you know, it is on the basis of information we furnished
to Mr. Gupta that he was able to contact you and Dr. Tishler and, as you suggested,
we will make sure to see Dr. and Mrs. Tishler.
What are the circumstances, Dr. Addinall, which led to your first meeting with Dr.
SubbaRow?
Dr. Addinall: As Dr. SubbaRow stated in a letter to Dr. Conant of Harvard University,
in the matter of his publication with Professor Fiske, he was primarily a medically
trained man and not an organic chemist. For this reason, he became a member of
the course on Organic Chemistry, known as Chemistry V, which was given by
Professor Kohler and it was in this class in Harvard University studying Organic
Chemistry that I met Dr. SubbaRow for the first time. Having just arrived myself from
India, I was naturally extremely interested in having as a member of the same
Organic Chemistry course, Dr. SubbaRow, who too had only just recently arrived
from India. From that acquaintance in the class, we became very good personal
friends and I continued my friendship with Dr. SubbaRow from that time.
Now, as a member of the Harvard Medical School and not of Harvard University, I
only saw him in the University when he attended this particular course in Chemistry
V. He was not, to the best of my knowledge, a member of the laboratory. I never saw
him in the laboratories there. He probably did his laboratory work in the Harvard
Medical School. It happened that I had many friends who were medical students among them a man who is now Dr. Fink, who was also a close friend of Dr.
SubbaRow's, and at the time that SubbaRow was working on muscle phosphates,
Fink and myself often went down to the Harvard Medical School laboratories and so I
often met Dr. SubbaRow in his Harvard Medical School laboratory.
It was there I learned, for instance, that in his investigations of the tissues of the
animal body, he had isolated what we now know to have been nicotinic acid. He had
in his desk drawer a large watch glass of crystals which turned out to be afterwards,
nicotinic acid. These were very important because in later days after Dr. SubbaRow
had joined the Lederle Laboratories, I again met him at various chemical meetings
where the question of the importance of the vitamins was discussed. Since about
1936, Merck had successfully synthesized Vitamin B 1 and the question .as to the
importance of the other factors of the Vitamin B complex were very much in
everybody's mind, particularly the question as to what was the vitamin that was really
effective in the control of pellagra, SubbaRow's knowledge of material taken from
tissues, particularly this knowledge of his that nicotinic acid could be extracted from
tissues, may have had a leading part in directing thinking as to the importance of
nicotinic acid in animal physiology.
My acquaintance with SubbaRow, naturally, followed the course of any student's
acquaintance with another student who was working in a different institution and so I
only met SubbaRow at odd times when either visiting the Harvard Medical School or
he was visiting Harvard for some reason or another. But we kept up a close
friendship throughout - say from 1925 to around 1937. At this time, Dr. Tishler, who
had remained in Harvard as an assistant to Professor Kohler, to whom I had been
assistant for some years, was looking for some appointment in industry or perhaps in
academic life. In 1937, Dr. Tishler came to the Merck Laboratories. It was about this
time too, that Dr. SubbaRow was also looking for another move, and because of his
great interest in liver, he ultimately found the position that he later occupied at
Lederle Laboratories.
Dr. Milford: You had alluded to the fact that Merck Laboratories at one time were
interested in obtaining Dr. SubbaRow's services. Would you care to comment further
on that point?
Dr. Addinall: Well, actually at this time, owing to the great success that Vitamin B 1
had had commercially, it was apparent that it was extremely important for the
physical welfare of mankind that more was known about the vitamins of the Vitamin
B Complex and the liver fraction with its importance for pernicious anaemia was very
dominant in people's thinking. Anyone who had been trained in Harvard Medical
School, where the original idea of a factor in liver was predominant, this idea of
extracting this factor from liver was one of the leading ideas of all commercial
laboratories. And it would be fairly obvious that any pharmaceutical laboratory that
was interested in the vitamin business or interested in the separation of the active
principles from liver would be interested in anyone like Dr. SubbaRow, who had
spent so much of his time working on this problem. He would be a valuable
acquisition to any laboratory. Therefore, any laboratory that was expanding its staff
with the idea of working in the vitamin fields would find Dr. SubbaRow a very likely
prospective candidate.
Ultimately, Dr. SubbaRow did come to this part of the world at Pearl River. And on
other occasions, I had the pleasure of seeing him, entertaining him and having lunch
with him in Rahway. I remember one incident where I know that we went to the
Colony Country Club of which I was a member. How many times I met him after he
arrived at Lederle, I do not know, but I do think that because of his friendship with Dr.
Bavarnick, who had been a student of mine when he was in Harvard, and because of
his friendship with Dr. Tishler and with various other members of the Merck staff, I do
believe that we met on and off the whole of the time that he was with Lederle
Laboratories until the unfortunate day where Dr. Tishler and myself attended the
funeral ceremony in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Dr. Milford: Do you have any recollection of him ever mentioning any relatives?
Dr. Addinall: No, not at all.
Dr. Milford: Do you know under what particular circumstances Dr. SubbaRow came
to this country?
Dr. Addinall: Apparently, he was a graduate of the University of Madras. I do believe
that he had been sponsored during his studies there - I am speaking purely from
memory and conjecture - by some Missionary society. I think it was because of that,
that he was so grateful to the people in Ridgewood and so close to the Baptist
Church in Ridgewood. He had, at the time he was in Madras, come in contact with
American missionaries of that particular denomination and he always gave me the
opinion that that was one of the reasons he came over to this country. He
apparently, was not financially well backed by anyone, because I know that he was
practically self-supporting all the time that he was in Harvard Medical School.
He was for some years, the night curator of the Harvard Medical Library and he
generally used to make some of his meals in the laboratory. Occasionally we would
go out together and have dinner, but mostly he lived very, very close to his
laboratory and his library. I think, myself, that he was self-supporting by the work that
he did in the library.
Dr. Milford: Did you know of any scientific publications of Dr. SubbaRow prior to your
first meeting him?
Dr. Addinall: I never remember him even mentioning any paper that he had written in
India. The officers of the Indian Army only served in one of the three Presidencies. I
was an officer of the Bombay Presidency, and therefore, never served in the south of
India. I had been in Madras for various reasons, but I was not a member of the
Madras Presidency forces. I was a member of the Bombay Presidency forces and for
that reason I did not speak "Tamil" which is the common language of Madras. I
spoke the lingua franca of Northern India, "Hindustani" (Urdu), and although Dr.
SubbaRow could speak "Urdu", his native language was probably "Tamil". For that
reason we never spoke in Hindustani together, except jokingly.
Dr. Milford: How long did you stay in India?
Dr. Addinall: I went to India in 1916, and became a temporary wartime officer, but in
1919, I became a regular officer of the Indian Army and stayed on until the regular
forces were disbanded in 1923. I served most of my time on the northwest frontier
and therefore, I knew very little about the south of India.
Dr. Milford: What was the social, political and economic climate in India at that time?
Dr. Addinall: At the time I was in India -- I arrived in India towards the end of what
might be termed the Kipling days -- the Indian Army of the wartime was still an
extension of the old Indian Army. The various regiments kept up their regimental
customs, they kept up their uniforms, but gradually it was breaking down and the war
decimated all the old-time regiments. And after the war, after 1918, the army became
modernized. The armament was changed, the disciplines were changed, the old
customs began to disappear, but so far as the country was concerned the country
was still under the control of the British, acknowledged now in India as having done a
remarkable job in preparing India for its independence.
There had never been any doubt, at least in the mind of the officers of the Indian
army, that the promise that India would be free in 1957, would not be kept. At that
time, everything looked as if they were getting ready to gradually hand over the
country. For example, in my time, we were told that they would open in India a
school for Indian officers similar to Sandhurst in England. At the time I was there, all
the officers of a regiment were divided into two separate parts; the white officers every Indian regiment had a staff of white officers, nominally 14, but never more than
about 5, and these officers held King's commissions. The regiment, however, had a
full set of Indian officers under Indian titles – ‘subedars’ and ‘jamadars’ - these
subedars and jamadars, corresponding to captains and lieutenants, were given a
Viceroy's commission.
But in 1922, it was announced that officers would be sent to a training school similar
to Sandhurst and they would then receive King's commissions and gradually the
officers of the Army would be more and more Indian and less and less British. To
accelerate that, in1922 and 1923, they decided that all young wartime officers would
be retired. The only English officers kept would be either old-timers, pre-war, or
young men fresh from Sandhurst, but that all officers who had been commissioned
during the war and who had active service would be retired. An extensive retirement
of officers took place in 1923, with the effect that Indian Army officers with wartime
service were spread all over the world, to Australia, Canada, Africa. I had been
educated as a chemist in London and Sheffield Universities and to continue my
scientific education, came to America.
Dr. Milford: Are you familiar with the work carried on by Dr. SubbaRow while he was
at Harvard, beside his work on liver?
Dr. Addinall: Since I don't know what happened to Dr. SubbaRow's professor, Dr.
Fiske, with whom he worked, and Otto Folin, who was there, I should say that for
information about that, since its so long ago, Dean Edsall, who was Dean at the time
SubbaRow was there and is still active, probably would be the man who could give
you more information about SubbaRow.
Dr. Milford: Was Dean Edsall the active Dean at that time? Do you know of anyone
who could give me more information about Dr. SubbaRow while he was at Harvard?
Dr. Addinall: It may be that Dr. Tishler could give you more information about men
who were active in SubbaRow's time, who are still active in the University.
Dr. Milford: I came across some correspondence of Dr. SubbaRow to Dr. Conant.
Did he do any special work with Dr. Conant as far as you know?
Dr. Addinall: Dr. Conant was in Harvard University, but he may not know very much
about SubbaRow, because SubbaRow was a student of Professor Kohler and not of
Professor Conant. Probably the reason why, in 1937, SubbaRow wrote to Dr. Conant
was that at that time Conant was president of all Harvard University.
Dr. Milford: Would you care to tell me something about Dr. SubbaRow as a man and
as a scientist?
Dr. Addinall: Close relation with Dr. SubbaRow was a hard thing to realize. He was
‘wedded to his work’. It was very difficult to get him to leave the laboratory. For
instance, when we went down in the afternoon to Harvard Medical School during
vacation, we would try to tease him into playing tennis but that was out of the
question because he took no part in any extra curricular activity. The only thing that
could keep your friendship up with Dr. SubbaRow was either to sit in his laboratory
and talk to him there or help him with some task or, about six o'clock or so, invite him
to go out to dinner.
Dr. Milford: What do you know of his sense of humour?
Dr. Addinall: Well, I would say that he was a very pleasant man. He wasn't a man
given to loud, raucous laughter or horseplay, but he was an extremely kind and nice
person to talk to, with a quiet, pleasant - I would say pleasant rather than humorous personality.
Dr. Milford: Do you think he was socially happy in the Harvard environment?
Dr. Addinall: I think, myself, that he had two handicaps. One was that he was a
foreigner in a foreign country, which always makes a great difference. The second
thing was that, though he did not show any apparent caste prejudices, this must
have in some way affected his personality. I don't remember any particular aversions
he might have had to American food or to American people. Having just come from
India myself, where I had lived for so many years and served as quartermaster in an
Indian Regiment, I was very conscious of the various prejudices that the Hindu
religion or religions in India had exercised on people.
For instance, I could never go through the lines of my regiment without being very
careful not to let my shadow cross any food, because if it did, the food would be
thrown away immediately. I remember once, having lost my whistle and could not
signal to the troops. I borrowed a whistle from an Indian officer and thoughtlessly
handed it back to him. This was an accident and he looked at me very
contemptuously and threw it away. I had forgotten, of course, that you must never
touch anything that an Indian has to touch.
I was very much surprised when I found it was very easy to have a friendship with
SubbaRow and that when we went out to eat, there was no question as to the type of
food or the manner in which it was served or any of those things that I was
accustomed to from having close dealings with Indians for so many years. I think
though, that he was very conscious of the fact. When we first met in 1925, foreign
students were not as common as they are now. They were far from common, and
although people liked SubbaRow very much, Harvard was not a place where you
rapidly made friends with anyone, particularly if you were a foreigner and had the
disadvantage of being a different colour. Being an Englishman, I found it extremely
difficult to establish normal relations. Some people were very pleased to know you
because you were English--others didn't like it at all. I was conscious of that and I'm
sure that contributed somewhat to SubbaRow's reservedness.
Another thing was that he was financially, shall we say, from poor people, and
Harvard had many wealthy men. The social standards were very high. Therefore, it
was difficult for a poor man, whatever his race was, to fit in. I would like to stress too,
that he was absolutely absorbed in his work: He made his work his great interest and
this, added to the other two factors - the fact that he was a stranger and the fact that
he was conscious of his English not being as fluent as he would have liked, were the
things that made him extremely reserved, and made it rather difficult to make a close
friend of him. Although we were very close, we never corresponded. You can't send
Christmas cards to a man when you don't know what his attitude toward a Christmas
card is, particularly if you know he cannot afford to send you a Christmas card back.
These things can hinder any really close connections.
Dr. Milford: When you were at Harvard, did you collaborate with him in any way?
Dr. Addinall: No, not at all.
Dr. Milford: Did you collaborate with him on some of his early work? If not, are you
familiar with some of the projects he worked on while at Harvard?
Dr. Addinall: In that he was a student of Fiske of the Harvard Medical School and
that he only took one course, as far as I know, in Harvard - that was Chemistry V,
which was a requisite course for any medical student. Except for the fact that I had
been in his laboratory and knew what he was doing, I don't know anything more
about his work. I had read his published papers, of course, with Fiske, but I know
nothing about the work that went into it.
Dr. Milford: Did Merck try at one time to have Dr. SubbaRow in their employ?
Dr. Addinall: I can only say that a man of his distinction having published his work
from the Harvard Medical School, that any laboratory looking towards building up
their study of the Vitamin B Complex, would naturally be interested in employing Dr.
SubbaRow. I will say that at the time he may have been considered. It would only be
natural that he would be considered.
Dr. Milford: What was the academic atmosphere at Harvard at this period of time?
Dr. Addinall: I went to Harvard because of its chemistry reputation. At that time,
Kohler was recognized as the outstanding organic chemist in America. Conant was
recognised for his brilliance and would probably have become a Nobel Prize Winner
had he not become president of the University. Theodore William Richards was at
that time the only Nobel Prize man in America. Forbes was well known for his work
in photo chemistry; Baxter, for his work on atomic weights, and I would say that the
chemical division of Harvard University in 1923 was probably the outstanding
chemical division of any university in the United States.
The medical school of course, at that time, was extremely famous because of Folin,
because of the work done on liver and because of Cushing, this all made Harvard
Medical School pre-eminent at that time. It was because of this pre-eminence in
chemistry and medicine that foreign students like myself and SubbaRow were
beginning to come to America rather than go to Germany. I had the choice of going
to Cambridge, England, to Berlin, McGill or to Harvard, and I chose Harvard because
of the reputation of the people there.
Dr. Milford: Had Dr. SubbaRow ever expressed his political, philosophical and
religious views to you?
Dr. Addinall: I would say that SubbaRow was a man of good will. I never heard him
express any theological doctrine. He was ethically sound. He was kind to people,
generous and I would say that he was a typical scientifically trained man of good will,
and I doubt that he had any deep theological dogma in his soul. He may have had,
but I never heard him express it.
Dr. Milford: You have mentioned Dr. Tishler. Do you think he is in a position to give
me additional background data on Dr. SubbaRow?
Dr. Addinall: Dr. Tishler might know more than I do about Dr. SubbaRow. I left
Harvard in 1930 to come to Merck, and Dr. Tishler remained in Harvard until 1937.
And all that time, Dr. SubbaRow was there. Therefore, for seven years these two
people must have at times been very close. I was here in Rahway and only saw
SubbaRow when I visited Cambridge occasionally or after-wards when SubbaRow
joined Lederle, but in that seven years I only saw SubbaRow on very odd occasions
or at meetings. That is why Dr. and Mrs. Tishler evidently know more about him
because they lived in Cambridge all during those years and they must have had
many occasions on which they met with Dr. SubbaRow.
Dr. Milford: What is the present address of Dr. Tishler?
Dr. Addinall: Dr. Tishler lives in Westfield, 857 Knollwood Terrace. Now it may have
been too, that Dr. Tishler entertained Dr. SubbaRow while he was at Lederle, but
you will have to get that information from Dr. Tishler.
Dr. Milford: Do you know anything of Dr. SubbaRow's family life?
Dr. Addinall: I think he mentioned his mother. I don't know anything more about his
family life.
Dr. Milford: I understand he had a brother who is now a retired judge.
Dr. Addinall: I wouldn't be surprised.
Dr. Milford,: Dr. Addinall, do you feel that Dr. SubbaRow's Harvard background was
mainly responsible for the success that he had in organizing the successful research
programme at Lederle laboratories, or do you feel that he was a highly adaptable
individual and it was that particular quality in him which was the major factor for his
success?
Dr. Addinall: That is a very hard question to answer as to how much success is due
to where he was trained. It certainly does no harm to be well trained in any place, but
I would attribute SubbaRow's great success to the fact that by being the librarian at
the Harvard Medical School he became extremely widely read. When other people
were out amusing themselves or constructing a family life or whatever people do with
their time, he spent all his time either reading science at night or working in the
laboratory during the day. If a man is absorbed in his work and if you give him the
opportunity, some apparatus and laboratories, he is bound to produce.
Dr. Milford: Did you know Dr. Spies?
Dr. Addinall: Yes, we knew Tom Spies well here. Merck financially supported a great
deal of his work he did in Birmingham, Alabama, on Pellagra. He was a very
energetic man and unfortunately died some years ago. Tom Spies was very well
known to everybody here at Merck because he was at one time one of our
consultants. As to what extent he was regarded as a consultant, you would have to
find out from other sources, but I know he was supported financially.
Dr. Milford: What in your opinion was some of Dr. SubbaRow's shortcomings? Was
he easy to get along with?
Dr. Addinall: One thing I must say when a man leads what the average man thinks is
an unbalanced life, when he devotes himself entirely to anything, whether it be
amusement, sports, science or anything else, he is hound to get rather unbalanced
and I think if Dr. SubbaRow had any fault it was difficult for him to imagine people did
not have the same absorbing interest in science that he had. Therefore, anyone who
was merely working for a living and not living to work were taking a different point of
view of life to Dr. SubbaRow.
Dr. Milford: Did you take any part in the splendid work in Vitamin E, K and B1?
Dr. Addinall: I didn't take any part for the simple reason I came to Merck and
Company as an alkaloid chemist to work on the opium alkaloids. It happened
however, that I have, or people think I have, a gift for writing, and in 1934 or so I
became very much aware of a problem that a growing laboratory always has to face.
This was the problem -- that you hire people to be chemists and it does not
necessarily follow that chemists are, shall we say, the very best people to handle
chemical literature. Either they do not know foreign languages or they cannot write
English or they are adverse to reading English and it seemed to me then, as it
always has, that if a thing has been done once and put into the records so that
anyone can read it, it is stupid to spend money to do the thing again, when it is
already in the books and free for you to use.
It was because of this consciousness (I'm speaking now of 1930, not 1962) of the
great necessity for organisation in chemical literature that I ultimately became
Director of Information for Merck and Company and I left the laboratory to devote
myself to making information available. For that reason, I became editor of the Merck
Index, and I edited the first house organ here. I organised the abstracting service
which is still in existence. In addition to that, I was responsible for most of the
propaganda of that time. At one time in fact, everything published by Merck and
Company had to cross my desk, and for that reason, after 1934 or 1935, although I
was Assistant Director of Research, I took no part in any laboratory operations.
It is to be regretted in some ways and in other ways it's impossible to do more than
one job at once. From that time onwards I devoted myself entirely to the technical
information organisation, organising libraries and writing information booklets. The
reason I'm always connected with Vitamin B1 was that I wrote the story of Vitamin B1.
Then I wrote the story of Amino Acids and so it would have gone on had it not been
for the fact that I then became the Foreign Scientific Director, spending the next
years all over the world. I never took any part in any of the research work, though I
was very close as Assistant Director of the laboratories.
Dr. Milford: What do you think are the elements of that prophetic vision of Dr.
SubbaRow's which as early as 1940 made him prophesy that Lederle would
crystallise, then synthesize folic acid? Would you care to comment on that point?
Dr. Addinall: I would say that the average person does not know what is happening
because he does not read enough. It is difficult for one to know exactly what is
happening unless he reads everything. SubbaRow read omnivorously. Now, you say
that in 1940 he suggested using steroids. About that time, Reichstein had published
his papers on the Adrenal Cortical Hormone - 19 classic papers - where he changed
the thinking that the hormones were carbohydrates and showed that they were bile
acid derivatives. Once Reichstein had put the 19 unknown adrenal hormones into
formulas and pointed out their relationship, he would have been a very stupid man
indeed, who did not say that you should not have a steroid division in your
laboratory.
I think SubbaRow was quite aware of the trends and the very latest discoveries in
the profession. Therefore, he could see what was coning from that he knew. There
are many people who not knowing don't see. It is not foresight, it is knowing what the
field is and how the field is developing. It is like a farmer. The farmer who loves his
fields knows when to plant and seed the next year's crop. He is not like a politician
who does not know how crops grow and who can't see what next years crops are
going to be. SubbaRow was very, very much aware of the various problems of his
time and therefore, it would almost seem like foresight as he was well aware of the
trend and what the trend of necessary research would be.
Dr. Milford: I have found a letter written to President Conant by Dr. SubbaRow, then
assistant teaching fellow in the Bio-Chemistry Department. I believe this letter to be
extremely significant as a measure of Dr. SubbaRow's intellectual integrity. Please
read this letter and comment.
Dr. Addinall: He was being put into a very awkward position. He was a man of, talent
and some people would have liked to have given him all the credit instead of
Dr. Fiske. He was well enough aware that he was simply a pair of hands of Fiske's
and this was Fiske's idea.
Dr. Milford: Did you know Dr. Jacobsen?
Dr. Addinall: I couldn't say that I knew Dr. Jacobsen. I knew of him, but did not know
him.
Dr. Milford: Would you say that Dr. SubbaRow was a man of great mental capacity?
Dr. Addinall: I'll put it this way, that I was a student of perhaps the most honest man
that I ever knew, Professor Kohler. Professor Kohler’s philosophy was that people
talked too much and didn't work enough and the true way to knowledge was to find
out by actual experiment and hard work; not to talk about it, but to work at it. He
worked from eight o'clock in the morning to twelve o'clock at night. All men who
worked with him did the same. Dr. Tishler was naturally a very hard worker and
under Kohler he was disciplined to long hours and to long search for facts. I think
that SubbaRow was the same. SubbaRow, because of his circumstances and
because of his nature, realised that the way to find out things was to work on them,
to read about them, and to get to know them. They here like Edison, who also
realised that genius is 99 % perspiration and 1% inspiration, and Kohler, Tishler and
SubbaRow were all Edisonian in that respect. They worked so hard that they put in
the 99% perspiration and they had that l% of inspiration. I would say finally that
SubbaRow was a great biological chemist who was endowed by nature with the
capacity for an infinite amount of hard work and also had that touch of genius, that
1% that has to complement 99% perspiration.
Dr. Milford: There is a consensus of opinion at Lederle that Dr. SubbaRow was
endowed with a very retentive memory. How do you feel about this?
Dr. Addinall: I wouldn't have said so at the time that I first knew him for the simple
reason that he was worried with so many things. He knew that his chemical training
was faulty. He knew that his English needed improvement, and when a man is like
that you are not impressed by his tremendous learning. But later on, I was aware of
the fact that whenever we were talking, if you referred to a paper he would
remember that paper, he would remember the author, he would remember the
argument and he would remember the reference back to some other paper.
But you could expect this from someone who reads a great deal. A man who reads a
great deal always has an enormous memory. You could never ask him the things
that he doesn't remember, because he remembers so much that you don't
remember. The only way to test whether the man has an enormous memory is to
know something very well, then cross-examine him and you'll find out. Kohler was
the same. I remember in Kohler’s laboratory, towards the end of my research work
when things were beginning to clear up a great deal and I was beginning to be able
to correlate things, I had a compound that melted at 1570 and it had a certain colour
and certain characteristics and I knew more or less what the formula was. I
remembered some work that had been done before and I went to Kohler's
laboratory. In speaking to Kohler, I said, "This compound is such and such a
compound."
“Let me see," Kohler said, "It melts at 1570." I asked, "How do you know that it melts
at 1570?"
He said, "Because Victor Meyer made that compound - in his paper so on and so
forth…"
He quoted the paper, the name of the compound and the melting point: He, of
course, was the same, because he too spent all his time reading chemistry.
Dr. Milford: Are you implying that memory is basically the capacity to make
association and see relationship?
Dr. Addinall: All memory is association. May I elaborate? I was seven years in
Harvard: there are some years I don't remember anything, because I have nothing to
attach to it, but I remember the first lecture that I ever attended. It was on quaternary
ammonium compound and although I attended Kohler's lectures for seven years,
there are some years I don't even remember I attended the lectures or not. The point
is -- you must have association. You must have some reference point that leads to
another point that leads to another point.
Dr. Milford: Dr. Parker intimated that he had a personal acquaintance of long
standing with you.
Dr. Addinall: Dr. Parker and I, you know were old friends who were in Germany
together. I know him well enough to call him up and he knows who I am straight
away, but you see I retired some six years ago. I'm here as a consultant.
Dr. Milford: I wish to thank you for allotting this time to us. This interview has been a
most informative one. I am contemplating using it as background material for
Mr. Gupta and I would like to impose upon you again for the benefit of your
comments and criticism before sending this material to Mr. Gupta.
I would like to extend an invitation to visit our Laboratories, if and when it would be
convenient for you.
Dr. Addinall: I would be delighted to do so.
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