DOCS.
419,
420
DECEMBER
1917 425
419. From Michele Besso
Zurich,
27
December
1917
To
Prof.
Einstein,
Berlin
Dear
Albert,
From
your
most recent
letter,
which
our
friend
Zangger
has shown
me,
I
gather
with
great
dismay
that
now
you
are
virtually
bedridden.[1]
Maja
already
told
me
that
you are
not
feeling
well
and
that
she has
urged you
very
strongly
to
take
in mountain air
again,
after
all,
which
evidently agreed
with
you
so
well
last
summer.[2] I
can
only
support
this idea
vigorously:
unfortunately
in
a
quite
selfless
manner,
because I should
gain nothing
from it
if
you
were
to
come
here
soon,
since
I
must
return
again
to
the
site
of
my new
and,
as
I
imagine,
permanent
sphere
of activity
in
the
middle
of next
month
already.-[3]
But
it should
anyway
be
a
very
extended
stay,
so
that
I
may perhaps
still have
the
pleasure
of
getting
together
with
you
often in
the
months
of
May,
June,
and
July
(which
you ought
to devote
to
the
thorough
fortification
of
your
health
in
the mountain
air,
and
I
to
a
semester lecture
course,
which
I
would still
like to
hold
here[4]).
Our
friend has relented
now,
after
all,
in
preparing a
bill for
you,[5]
and
a
very
substantial
one
at that, after
careful
discussion
with
your family
about the
most
urgent
necessities
they
are
expected
to
face,
in order to create
a
bit
of
reserves
under the
current favorable
conditions.[6] Also
I, or
shall
we
say Anna,
whose conscientiousness also
in financial matters
is
known to
you,
will
vouch for
a thoroughly
proper
use
of
it.
Warm
regards
and
best
wishes for
1918,
also
to
your loyal
and devoted
nurse,
yours,
Michele
Handwriting
and
thoughts
a
bit
wobbly:
I
am
freezing
a
little
for
a
change.
Our
descendants
will
probably
also have
to
make do with
little
or no coal;[7]
but then
they must
also become
a
bit
more
hardy
than
my generation.
In this–
and
probably
in
other
respects
as
well!
420. From
Rudolf
Förster
Essen,
Krupp
Factory,
AK
Laboratory, 28
December
1917
Esteemed
Professor,
I
would
like
to
express my
sincerest
thanks
for
your
kind
answer[1]
to
my
communication
as
well
as
for
sending me an offprint
of
your paper on
Hamilton’s