Letter to Karl Marx, February 10, 1866

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 10 February 1866


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913. Printed according to the original. Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 10 February 1866[1]

Dear Moor,

I have just spoken to Gumpert here and discussed your condition with him. He is firmly of the opinion you should try arsenic. He has used it in one case of carbuncles and one of very virulent furunculosis, and achieved a complete cure in approx. 3 months. He is now giving it to three ladies, so far with the greatest of success; they are positively thriving on it. FOWLERS SOLUTION is what he is giving, I believe it is 3 drops 3 times a day (I am not quite so sure about that any more), but altogether the patient takes about 1 grain of arsenic a day. In view of the specific effect that arsenic has with all skin diseases, there is every prospect of it being effective with you, too. He thinks iron would only have a symptomatic and hence strengthening effect. And with arsenic there is no special diet to be observed at all, just living well.

You really must at last do something sensible now to shake off this carbuncle nonsense, even if the book[2] is delayed by another 3 months. The thing is really becoming far too serious, and if, as you say yourself, your brain is not UP TO THE MARK for the theoretical part, then do give it a bit of a rest from the more elevated theory. Give over working at night for a while and lead a rather more regular life. When you are yourself again, come up here for a fortnight or so, so that you have a bit of a change, and bring enough papers along with you for you to be able to do a spot of work here—if you like. Incidentally, the 60 sheets will make 2 thick volumes. Can you not so arrange things that the first volume at least is sent for printing first and the second one a few months later? This would keep both publisher[3] and public happy and yet no time will have been lost realiter[4] .

You must also bear in mind that as things stand now, the situation on the Continent may change rapidly. In Prussia things are moving with marvellous rapidity. Bismarck is pressing hard for a crisis. First the decision by the Supreme Tribunal,[5] and then now the threat of an authentic interpretation of the constitution by the King.[6] The philistines' last illusion about peaceful historical development has gone to the devil. The first plausible pretext, perhaps no more than a serious complication over Schleswig-Holstein even, may be the spark that sets it off, once the troops are concentrated on the frontier; although I myself hardly believe that anything will happen without a more general cause, but the possibility is there. What would be gained in these circumstances by having perhaps a few chapters at the end of your book completed, and not even the first volume can be printed, if events take us by surprise? Something may happen any day in France, too, in Austria the attempted reconciliation with Hungary can only lead to sharper division.

Q.E.D.: get yourself back on your feet and ad hoc[7] give the arsenic a try.

Your

F. E.

Kind regards to Madame[8] and the YOUNG LADIES.

  1. ↑ The letter bears the stamp: Albert Club / Manchester.
  2. ↑ Capital
  3. ↑ Otto Meissner
  4. ↑ in actual fact
  5. ↑ On 29 January 1866 the Prussian Supreme Tribunal adopted a decision to institute court proceedings against Karl Twesten and Frenzel, members of the Chamber of Deputies, for their Chamber speeches delivered in 1865 in which they criticised the government press. This decision was adopted despite the fact that the courts of first and second instance rejected the prosecutor's demand to apply this measure to the said deputies. The Chamber of Deputies of the Prussian Provincial Diet found the Supreme Tribunal's decision contradictory to the Prussian Constitution and to the principle of the inviolability of deputies, and turned it down. Nevertheless, Twesten's case was referred to the Berlin City Court, but in May 1866 Twesten was acquitted.
  6. ↑ William I
  7. ↑ to that end
  8. ↑ Jenny Marx