Attachment 9


     Letter dated April 23, 1969, from Dr. Patricia Durbin to
 John R. Howard, Assistant Hospital Administrator, University of
 California Medical Center, re: "I am writing to ask if you will
    give us some assistance with a project involving some old
    medical records that may be in your files...."  Copy; 2 p.
                     ACHRE No. DOE 121294-D.
                                                   April 23, 1969

Mr. John R. Howard
Assistant Hospital Administrator
1360
U.C. Medical Center
San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Mr. Howard,

     I am writing to ask if you will give us some assistance with
a project involving some old medical records that may be in your
files.

     I am sure you are aware that the scientists of the World War
II Manhattan Project who first produced the element, plutonium,
were concerned early about the potential toxicity of this material. 
In 1945-47, in addition to animal experiments, a few persons, all
hospital patients, were given small amounts of Pu by injection, and
Pu deposition and elimination were studied.

     The late, Dr. Joseph G. Hamilton, and his group at Crocker
Laboratory on the Berkeley Campus, conducted many of the Pu animal
experiments for the Manhattan Project.  He was also associated with
the U.C. Medical School.  From 1945 to 1947 four persons, at least
two were U.C. Hospital patients, were injected with Pu.  All of
these patients were scheduled for surgery biopsy for malignant bone
tissue.

     Most of the patients injected with Pu were studied at other
hospitals around the country, and although most were elderly and
expected to have short life expectancies at the time of injection,
some were misdiagnosed.  Because of this, there was an
understandably great uproar when the civilian A.B.C. took over from
the Manhattan Engineer District.  As a result, the human data thus
obtained was classified "Secret", and so it remained for some
years.  All efforts to follow up as those persons who had been
injected ceased abruptly, and no other human being has been
deliberately injected with Pu since.  Gradually the classification
was downgraded, and the bulk of the data now appear in the open
literature.  Unfortunately, the material from three of the four
patients injected by Dr. Hamilton has never been made available to
anyone.  It lay in storage for more than 20 years, and was only
discovered in a search of old materials for an entirely different
purpose.

     Today, the production of Pu is enormous, and all indications
are that it will increase.  More people in the nuclear energy field
are being exposed to Pu and more are expected to be world-wide. 
Still -- all of our knowledge about Pu behavior in man rests on the
sketchy results the patients injected in the early days.  None of
     We have searched the files of the Pathology Department and
identified two of the four patients.  But, because we have neither
name or case number, only pre-surgery diagnosis and surgery date,
the remaining two could not be located.  Before we embark on a
lengthy search of records in the other hospitals with which Dr.
Hamilton had contacts, we would like to obtain permission to
examine the surgery logs for the dates 6/1-/47 and 7/22/47.  We
have descriptions of the tissues taken by Dr. Hamilton for chemical
analysis.  Surgery dates and procedure--amputation of a portion of
a lower limb in each case should provide enough information to
determine whether or not such surgery performed on those dates, we
will then have eliminated U.C. Hospital as who location and can
take the search elsewhere.

     I can assure you that all records will be handled with full
regard to their confidential medical nature and, that, as is
customary, no names will be used in publication.  We will be most
grateful for any help you can give us in this search.

                              Yours very truly,



                              Patricia W. Durbin, Ph.D.
                              Physiologist, Division of Biology
                              and Medicine