Peter Medawar: his life and work

I first met Peter Medawar at University College, London in 1955. His paper in Nature with Billingham and Brent on "Actively Acquired Tolerance of Foreign Cells" had appeared in 1953 and I wanted to ask his advice about tracing the fate of lymphocytes after transfusions between non-inbred rats. I was led towards the sound of a typewriter where I was reassured about the interruption. He said he welcomed a break from composing what he called, selfmockingly but with evident pleasure, his "undying prose". Peter was intrigued at this first meeting to have news of Howard Florey at the Dunn School of Pathology in Oxford, where Peter and Jean had carried out some of their earliest research, and we had a long talk about lymphocytes. This was the first of many occasions when I, like countless others, came away exhilarated by Peter's brilliance and high spirits. He always made others feel that their work was not only interesting, but just as interesting as his