420
DOC.
412 DECEMBER
1917
412.
From Heinrich
Zangger
[Zurich,
17 December
1917][1]
Dear friend
Einstein,
The
arrival of
your
letter[2] today
was a
great joy among many oppressive
things-with
your profession
of
philanthropy
and
charity
as
the
foremost
prin-
ciples
in
life-there
was
a
time when
you
used almost to
pity
this
penchant
of
mine;
I
could not do otherwise.
You
see
from
the
letter, overdue since
3 months,
which
was
sent out
a
1/2
hour before
yours,[3]
that
I
had
thought
of
many
of
the items-I
just
cannot
carry
out
everything
now
for
a
while,
above
all, going
to Arosa in order to
see
what
Tete
can
be
expected
to
go
through-the
beastly
February
and March
weather![4] His
mother
is
doing
tolerably
well-the
spinal
cord has
certainly
remained
completely
healthy,[5]
the inflammation
process
has
spread, as
is
very rarely
the
case,
to
the
bones,
also
according
to
the
X–
ray plate.
The disks
(which supply
the
elas-
ticity)
have
narrowed,
thus
now
any
disloca-
tion
pinches
more
than
otherwise for
relatively
small
dislocations.
But
there has been
no
fever
for
a
long
while;
flexi-
bility
is
not
worse
but
any
strain
is
dangerous,
owing
to
buckling
of
the
vertebral column and
bending
of
the
spinal
cord
canal[6]-repose;
as
in
so
many
cases,
nature
compels
the
formation
of
a
kind
of
boney
sleeve which
can
bear
again, although a
bit
stiffly.
Before
your
letter
arrived,
the
day
had saddled
me
with several
things
already:
Trudy is
developing
a
high fever,[7]
I
ought
to
leave
on
a
business trip abroad,
F[ederal] C[ouncillor]
Forrer
was here,[8]
had difficult
patients,
became dean of
a
society
that
is
not
always
of
one
mind,
and
had
to
accept,[9]
and
am
annoyed
that
I
cannot do
any
of
the
physics
work.
Your
mathemat.
bridges,
A,
spanning
to
the
end of
the
world
are
too
lofty
for
me,[10]
but
many
of
your experiences
during
the
discovery,
which
you
retraced
for
me,
are
present
in
me
and
often
Nerve
exit
Spinal
cord
nerve
tracts
Bone
Support
for
shoulder-head
Protective
ring
for cord canal
Pathological
rot.
Superpositions:
in
part
pressure
on
nerves,
partial
dissolution
of
bone
substance;
the
disks between
the
vertebrae
are
badly
reduced.
The
spinal
column somewhat
col-
lapsed, roughly
to
a
sharp
arching
around the 3-4 affected vertebrae