Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1675

Carbon of a letter from Heath to F. A. Harper, Box 113, Burlingame, California.

September 12, 1959

 

 

 

Dear Dr. Harper “Baldy”

 

     Returning here I have at last found the book I told you so much about: General Biology and Philosophy of Organism by Ralph Stayner Lillie, University of Chicago Press, 1945.

 

     I am sending you my marked copy with penciled annotations which may possibly be of added interest to you. Please keep it a  month or two and if you would like to have a copy of it will have the Bookmailer send you a fresh one.

 

     You will note that Lillie locates the psychological vital determiners in the set of almost infinitesimal genes, a set of which accompanies every biological cell from conception onward — a system of events of such minute dimensionality as to lie wholly outside the realm of objective (sensory) experience. This suggests a fine-grained, sub-quantal realm in nature lying beyond all direct physical experience just as ultra violet waves are dimensionally beyond the limited retinal sensitivity directly to respond.

 

     I suppose Spencer contacts you occasionally, being in Berkeley so near by (60 Richardson Road). I hope so. I miss him terribly but am immensely thrilled at what he is doing — the course he is pursuing.

 

     Many happy remembrances to you and all yours.

 

                            Cordially,