D O C U M E N T 6 8 S E P T E M B E R 1 9 2 5 7 7 write me as soon as possible, won’t you, about when exactly you are coming? And that you will stay with us for a long time namely from **** until ****. Please don’t be all that annoyed with me if you soon see some “fluctuation hog- wash” by me in the Z[eitschrift] f[ür] Ph[ysik].[7] I am now busy with something that—I hope—you will look upon with more favor: I present the strange difficulties one encounters when attempting to interpret the enormously high atomic diamag- netism of solid bismuth as some sort of electron motions.[8] It’s always so amusing to me that communication with you and Bohr gives me the courage to carry on with my fiddling about, whereas communication with the great majority of other theoretical physicists totally discourages me. This is very paradoxical. I have now received from Minnaert,[9] Julius’s coworker, an excellent compila- tion of all the data you need about Julius’s life and work.[10] Should I send it to you or keep it here?[11] From a very slight hint by Lorentz’s daughter,[12] I was able to reconstruct— hopefully without misunderstanding!—a very serious critical comment by Lorentz directed against Miller’s experiment,[13] which Lorentz supposedly also sent to Miller just now: Lorentz notes (assuming that I’m not mistaken) that any somewhat reasonable assumption about the ether wind must yield a purely meridional direc- tion, in any case for the time average of the flow vector over all the hours in a day. However, as I hear, Miller’s measurements supposedly yield a mean flow that de- viates by approximately 30 degrees from the meridional orientation!!!! I don’t know if it would be all right with Lorentz if his comment entered the debate before he got an answer from Miller so don’t talk about it with anyone for the time being also, I may perhaps have misunderstood. Now, dear Einstein, reply to me very briefly on a postcard. Also let me know whether the editor of the Astrophys. Journ. already asked you for the Julius necrology.[14] — A short while ago I went to see Ornstein[15] with the intent of fos- tering the best possible relations among all physicists, and it went rather well, after I had gotten my own feelings off my chest somewhat. But unfortunately I was able to gather in the meantime from absolutely reliable data that out of his wish to be- come director of the Utrecht laborat. (as successor to[16] Julius) [He[17] totally re- organized this laborat.!! and made it blossom!][18] and to procure the professorship of theoret. physics for his student Burger[19] (instead of Kramers!)—he is once again employing remarkably powerful (international) means. I cannot judge at all whether Ornstein should obtain the experimental professorship. But I find it ridic- ulous that Burger should receive the theoret. professorship if Kramers[20] is available. Warm regards to you, your wife, Ilse, and Margot! Your P. Ehrenfest