A former professor of Anatomy at the University Medical School testified yesterday in Washington that he had joined a Communist organization at the invitation of a present faculty member while studying here in 1940.

Dr. Marcus Singer, now teaching at Cornell, delivered this testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He stated at the same time that he was no longer connected with any Communist or left-wing groups.

His testimony followed attacks Monday by members of the Cambridge City Council and the Massachusetts House of Representatives on the Corporation's recent decision to retain Wendell H. Furry, associate professor of Physics, and two other faculty members who invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions before Congressional investigating committees.

Testifies Again Today

Singer yesterday refused on the basis of the fifth amendment to tell who had asked him to join the Communist group. He did say, however, that the person was "a member of the Harvard teaching staff."

Although Singer protested that it would be inconveneint for him to appear before the Committee again, Chairman Harold H. Velde (R.-III.) ordered him to return. He will testify again this morning.

In an order introduced before the Cambridge City Council Monday afternoon, Councillor Thomas M. McNamara condemned the Corporation "for retaining instructors and professors who have been proven members of a subversive organization or who flaunted and defled the constituted authority of the Congress of the United States."

Council Order Shelved

Councillors W. Donnison Swan '16 and Edward A. Crane '35 and Mayor Joseph A. DeGuglielmo '29 defended the Corporation's decision, and the matter was referred to the committee on finance--a virtual shelving--by a five to four vote.

The resolution introduced in the House called the decision by the Corporation "illogical, unwise, and posing problems of grave concern to the citizens of this Commonwealth." It termed the attitudes of Furry and the other faculty members retained "an unjust reflection on the patriotism of the teaching profession as a whole."

Local reaction to the Corporation's stand has been generally unfavorable. Only the Christian Science Monitor and the Herald have given the decision any kind of editorial support, while most Boston papers have attacked it violently.