[London,] 20 February 1866 

Dear Fren, 

You can imagine how opportunely the £10 came. I had been 
served with two threats of distraint, for £6 ”0” 9d. for the bloody 
municipal taxes, and for Ish. 16d. for the Queens Taxes. And I had 
until Friday to pay. 

As regards the carbuncles, the position is: 

Concerning the upper one, from my long practical experience I 
was able to tell you that it really needed lancing. Today (Tuesday), 
after receiving your letter, I took a sharp razor, a RELICT OF DEAR 
Lupus, and lanced the cur myself. (I cannot abide doctors meddling 
with my private parts or in their vicinity. Furthermore, I have 
Allen’s testimony That I| am onE OF THE BEST SUBJECTS TO BE OPERATED UPON. I 
always recognise what has to be done.) The sang briilé? as Mrs 
Lormigr says, spurted, or rather leapt, right up into the air, and I 
now consider this carbuncle buried, although it srit wants some 
NURSING. 

As far as the lower cur is concerned, it is becoming malignant 
and is beyond my control and kept me from sleeping the whole 
night through. If this diabolical business advances, I shall have to 
send for Allen, of course, as, owing to the locus of the cur, I am 
unable to watcu anp curr it myself. And in general it is clear that on 
THE WHOLE I know more about carbuncular complaints than most 
doctors. 

And by the by, I still hold to the view that I suggested to 
Gumpert during my last stray in Manchester: that is, that the 
itching and scratching between my testis and posterior over the 
past 2'/, years and the consequent peeling of the skin have been 
more aggravating to my constitution than anything else. The 
business started 6 months before the first monster carbuncle which 
I had on my back, and it has persisted ever since. 

My dear poy, in all these circumstances one appreciates More THAN 
Ever the good fortune of a friendship such as exists between 

@ bad blood 

ourselves. You should know for your part that there is no 
relationship I value so highly. 

I will send you ‘Zaches’ and ‘Facrory Rerorrs’* tomorrow. You 
will understand, my pear fellow, that in a work such as mine,” there 
are bound to be many snorrcomincs in the detail. But the 
composition, the structure, is a triumph of German scholarship, 
which an individual German may confess to, since it is 1n No way his 
merit but rather belongs to the nation. Which is all the more 
gratifying, as it is otherwise the siturst Nation under the sun! 

The fact, which Liebig had ‘denounced’ and which prompted 
Schénbein’s investigations, was this: 

The upper layers of the soil always contain more ammonia than 
the deeper ones, instead of containing less of it as they would have 
to do if they had lost it through cultivation. The fact was 
recognised by every chemist. Only the cause was unknown. 

Hitherto, decay was considered to be the sole source of 
ammonia. All chemists (including Liebig) denied that the nitrogen 
in the air could serve as a nutrient for plants. 

Schénbein proved (by experiment) that any flame burning in 
the air converts a certain quantity of the nitrogen in the air into 
ammonium nitrate, that every process of decomposition gives rise 
to both nitric acid and ammonia, that the mere evaporation of 
water is the means causing the formation of both plant nutrients. 

Finally, Liebig’s ‘jubilation’ at this discovery: 

‘The combustion of a pound of coal or wood restores to the air not merely the 
elements needed to reproduce this pound of wood or, under certain conditions, 
coal, but the process of combustion in itself (note the Hegelian category) 

‘transforms a certain quantity of nitrogen in the air into a nutrient indispensable 
for the production of bread and meat.'¢ 

T FEEL proud oF THE Germans. It 1s OUR DUTY TO EMANCIPATE THIS ‘DEEP’ PEOPLE. 

Your 
K. M.