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Mr. David Remnick, Editor Dear Mr. Remnick: Patrick Tierney's essay, The Fierce Anthropologist, does violence to the achievements and reputation of James V. Neel, M.D., Ph.D., a superb scientist. I first met Jim in 1955, and worked closely with him in his 2-year field study (medical examinations) of 7500 children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the effects of inbreeding on their health (1958-1960). For four months I worked all day with him in the Hiroshima clinics. He was an excellent clinician. Tierney did not mention that he was a physician. And Jim surely could recognize measles and bronchopneumonia. He had a broad knowledge of medicine. He could even read EKGs. Because Susan Lindee's biography of Jim was so full of errors, he wrote a book on his scientific career - to set the record straight, (Physician to the Gene Pool, Wiley, 1994, 457 pp.). In it he gives an account of the measles epidemic which he fought, not caused, by vaccinating the Yanomami (see enclosure). Why did Tierney not cite this authoritative statement from the man he is accusing? Where were your Fact-Checkers? I leave the evaluation of complications to Dr. Sam Katz, the foremost expert on measles vaccines. Usually when I read about people I know I can recognize them. Not so with Tierney's portrayal. He did not note that Neel was elected early in his career to membership in the National Academy of Sciences, or that he received the Lasker Award in about 1960, and the National Medal of Science from President Ford. Jim was a great administrator who prepared for every contingency in his field studies. Tierney's account makes him seem a terrible bumbler. See my letter, enclosed, to Jim's wife on his approach in this regard. It is impossible to believe that he would falsify any scientific (or non-scientific) information. He deserves an article by one of your staff (not Tierney) on the true story, under what used to be called the Department of Amplification. I am a long-time fan of the New Yorker, since1942 when I was a college senior, so I know its style and content well. This is tabloid journalism. Sincerely. Robert W. Miller, M.D., Dr.P.H. (Scientist Emeritus, National Cancer Institute) 5601 Alta Vista Road Bethesda, MD 20817-3511
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