101 St. Paul Street,
Brookline, Mass.,
March 16, 1927.Miss Turner dear,
What can I say to you? Oh, you shouldn't, you shouldn't! You have to count, if not the five-centers, at least the quarters, too, and twenty-five dollars is a lot. I feel guilty about accepting it, but I assure you it is very, very welcome. Two things I'm needing badly, and your gift will get me both - a new dress for the warmer weather, and a copy of Matthews' Physical Chemistry. Thank you, Miss Turner.
Miss Woolley's announcement that the '86 Fellowship has been awarded to me was waiting for me tonight and has made me awfully happy. I'd rather have Holyoke's than any other. But it won't be enough for the year. Wellesley's has been awarded to a Wellesley alumna; Radcliffe's are not announced until April 1st. Dr. Redfield is recommending me also for the Porter Fellowship awarded by the Amer. Physiol. society. He seems hopeful because it was given by Dr. Porter & has not yet, he thinks, been awarded to a Harvard person. I don't feel as hopeful because it is awarded primarily for research promise, & that is certainly not my long suit just now. But just supposing both Radcliffe & Porter fellowships should be awarded to me, I wonder which it would be more politic to accept in view of my next furlough. I've an idea that I'd stand a better chance of a Radcliffe one then [sic] if I had already held a Radcliffe one before, but I don't know. What would you think? It would seem very selfish to take a $1000 or $1200 one on top of Holyoke's $500, but no one is enough for me to put through the England, Edinburgh, Copenhagen scheme.
I've been considerably discouraged of late. Our physiology quizzes came back last week & I got only C. Only one of the 8 graduate students, DeFrates, a teaching fellow in Biochem, got B. Polly Marsh got D, & we other 6, including Mr. Hamlin & Mr. Walker, got C. Later in the week I broached Dr. Redfield on the subject of teaching this summer, saying that I wasn't fit for the job. The farther I go in Physiology the more I realize it & the more, too, I realize that I need it. He was awfully nice, said he didn't feel that way about it, & himself brought up the subject of the quiz, wihch I had hoped he would. He said that he wasn't disappointed & that I shouldn't be discouraged; that it simply meant that we graduate students were not so good as the best medicals. That "simply" seems to me not so simple, for after all we have to get B for credit! He said the trouble with mine was that I didn't give enough detail on the heat question. (Dr. Cohn interrupted then & we got no further about the summer.) There were 2 questions: In what ways can the following be modified with regard to a) amplitude, b) duration: 1. skeletal muscle stimlated thru its nerve, 2. Skel. musc. stim. directly, 3 Cardiac musicle and 2nd, Account for the heat produced in a muscle contraction.
Yesterday we had our first lab exam in biochem. I drew a Kjeldahl & a calibration, both nice things, bu we don't know yet how we fared. In the last minute rush I multiplied my wt. by the density of water instead of dividing, so of course that's all off. Dumb-bell!
The research has been sticky, too, of late. Dr. R. took a notion that the colorimeter would serve our joint needs better than my little color standards & I've been growing gray fooling with the thing. It doesn't seem to me that it's accurate - for so many factors affect the readings.
Today he rather sat on me for being too "fussy," saying that a 5% inaccuracy would probably be less than that by the other method, & told me to "get on with the job"! I felt properly squelched but I guess he's right. I've been so impressed with the need for accuracy in this place that I haven't discriminiated between essentials & inessentials. I went ahead then & it seems to me that I got a very nice series this afternoon showing the effect of N/20 HCl on haemocyanin. It clearly affects the oxygen-combining part of the haemocyanin molecule for we get a complete series from 100% oxyhaemocyanin to noise by the mere addition of acid.
Hill's lectures are fine. I have been to all the Lowell ones so far & he has given two at the medical school, the first on muscle viscosity, the second on heat production in nerve. He certainly knows his stuff & how to present it. Can't you come for any of them? They're Mon. & Thurs. at the Institute. I've a hunch he'll come to the Medical school again but nothing has been announced.
Spring is so nice. Our crocuses are spreading about sweetly; grackles & song sparrows we saw on Sunday. I'm so glad I'll be in So. Hadley in April.
Very much love to you, Miss Turner dear, and many many thank-yous.