CRICK, Francis Harry Compton (1916-2004) and James Dewey WATSON (1928-). "The complementary structure of deoxyribonucleic acid." Offprint from: Proceedings of the Royal Society, A, vo. 223. [Cambridge University Press, 7 April 1954.]

The fourth, and longest, of Watson and Crick's jointly published papers on the structure of DNA. The initial discovery of the double-helix opened the floodgates to further crystallographic research to prove and explicate the discovery. In this paper Watson and Crick present their research from the past year and conclude: "The structure consists of two DNA chains wound helically round a common axis, and held together by hydrogen bonds between specific pairs of bases. The assumptions made in deriving the structure are described, and co-ordinates are given for the principal atoms. The structure of the crystalline form is discussed briefly" (abstract). This offprint belonged to Dr. Leonard Hamilton of Sloan-Kettering Institute of New York. Hamilton was a Cambridge-educated biochemist, just a few years younger than Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, with whom he was close friends. It was Hamilton who supplied the DNA specimens for Wilkins' lab to photograph.

Octavo (251 x 170mm). 8 conjugate leaves plus single leaf 9. 7 text illustrations plus one photographic plate with two figures. Self wrapper, stab-sewn with the last leaf tipped at left edge onto preceding page as issued (a little handling creasing and soiling). Provenance: Leonard D. Hamilton, 1921-2019 (ownership signature to front page).