DOCS.
158,
159 MAY 1909 117
158.
To Jakob
Ehrat
Bern,
Sunday.[16
May 1909]
Dear
Ehrat,
My
wife
gives
me no
peace,
so
I have
to
tell
you:
Don't
eat at
Karl
d. Grosse![1]
The
food
there does
not taste
bad. But
they
cook it with
vegetable fat,
which
is
harder
to
digest,
less soluble and less
nutritious.
In
the
long
run,
we
(my
wife
and
I)
could
not
tolerate
it
either when
we were
in
Zurich.
I, especially,
often had intestinal
problems.[2]
So,
better
to eat at home,
no
matter how
simple
the
food!
So,
we
shall
definitely go
together
on our
trip
this
summer.
But
I
couldn't
say
anything
because
Grossmann
was
present.
He
is
really exceedingly
nice
and
charming,
I would
say
irresistible.
With
best
wishes,
your
Einstein.
P.S.
To
be
on
the
safe
side,
we
won't
be
going
to
Italy
but
only
to
the
mountains,
because
otherwise
you might
have
a
relapse.
159.
From
Jakob
Laub
Heidelberg, Handschuhsheimer
Landstr.
10,
16
May
1909
Dear
Friend,
Your
postcard
made
me
very happy.
It
was
high
time
for
you
to
get
out
of the
patent
office.
About
your
appointment[1]
one can
only say "justum
et
dignum
est." Once
again,
let
me
extend
my
sincerest
congratulations
to
you
and
your
wife. I
hope
that the
pay
isn't
so
bad
either.[2]
As for
myself,
I left
Würzburg
also for financial
reasons.[3] I
am
on very good
terms
with
Wien;[4]
it
seems
that
I could have
obtained
an
Assistent
position
with him if I
had
asked him
for
it.
He
was
told,
it
seems,
that I'm
not
at
all
thinking
about
taking
a
position
in
Germany.
One of these
days
I'll
tell
you quite a
lot
about
it.
I
can
tell
you
in
general:
Wien
is
a
gentleman through
and
through;
he
is
really
a
noble character
who
takes his science
seriously.-
As for
Lenard,
he
is
universally
known
to
be
a
satrap
who
is
very
harsh
with
the
assistants.
In
my
opinion they
deserve
it,
because
why
do
they always grovel?
All I
can
tell
you
is
that
Lenard
uses
quite
a
different
tone with
me,
and that
I
enjoy
the
fullest
freedom.
I
am very busy
now
with the work
on
ionization.[5]
The
Würzburg
institute
was
not
suitable for this work.
For the
present,
the
difficulty
is
in
finding
a
gas
that
is ionized
by
visible
light.
I
already
tried
several
gases
in
vain;
chlorine
now
promises
to be