244
DOCS.
250,
251
AUGUST
1916
able to relax
well.
In
a
few weeks I will
be
traveling-if possible-to Holland for
a
fortnight.
Warm
greetings
also to Anna
&
Vero,
yours,
Albert.
On
what
are
you lecturing
next semester? Did
you
have
hard-working
students?[7]
Are
you
content with
your teaching
duties? Write
me
about
all
this
at
length!
When
there
is
peace,
you
must
come soon
to visit!
251. To
Michele
Besso
[Berlin,
24
August
1916]
Dear
Michele,
Many
thanks
for
the
postcard
from Basel.
Unfortunately,
I
misplaced
your
friend Russi’s
postcard,[1]
so
I
can’t
pass
on
your
instructions
to
him.
I
don’t
recall
anymore
whether
I
answered
him;
so
send
me
his address.
I
am
very glad
that
my
wife is
slowly
getting
better.[2]
Although
if it
is
cerebral
tuberculosis,[3]
as seems probable, a
quick
end would be
better than
long suffering.
I
am
not
going
to
Holland,
because
traveling
is terribly
complicated;[4]
I
am
thinking
of
waiting
until
peacetime.
But
I
definitely
want
to
go
to
Switzerland
next
spring.
My
Albert
is
not
writing
to
me.
I believe
that
his
negative
attitude
toward
me
has fallen below
the
freezing
point.
In his
place,
under
the
given
circumstances,
I
also would
probably
have reacted in
the
same
way.[5]
The
papers
on
gravitational
waves
and
Planck’s
formula have been
lying
around
at
your
place
for
a
long
time
now.[6]
You will
enjoy
the latter. The
derivation
is
purely quantized
and
yields
Planck’s formula. In connection with
this,
it
can
be
demonstrated
convincingly
that the
elementary processes
of emission and
absorption
are
directed
processes.
One
just
has
to
analyze
the
(Brownian)
motion
of
a
molecule
(in
the
sense
of
that
derivation)
within
a
radiation
field.
In this
analysis,
which
is
being
published
in
the
Zurich
Phys.
Soc.’s
issue
in honor
of
Kleiner,
there
are no
undulatory theory
considerations either.[7]
Warm
regards,
yours,
Albert.