London, 11 January 1868 

Dear Kugelmann, 

D'abord* my best wary New years to your good wife, Franzchen,> 

and you yourself. And then my best THanks for the Jupiter, and 
for the activity and interest you display in making propaganda and 
leading the German press by the nose.° As our friend Weerth, who 
unfortunately died too early, used to sing: 

The finest thing in all the world 
Is making your enemies bellow, 

And cracking really awful jokes 

About each pompous fellow.4 

With all respect for your medical authority, you have too low an 
opinion of the English, German and French doctors whom I have 
in turn consulted and continue to consult here, if you think they 
cannot distinguish anthrax (carbuncles) from furuncles, particularly 
here in England, the land of carbuncles, which is essentially a 

4 First of all - & Gertruda and Franziska Kugelmann - © A reference to Kugel- 
mann’s assistance in having Engels’ reviews of Volume One of Capital published in 
the bourgeois press. - 4 G. Weerth, ‘Es gibt nichts Schénres auf der Welt’. 

proletarian illness! And if the doctors made no distinctions, the 
patient like myself who knows both forms of monster could do so, 
for the subjective impression they make is very different, though 
as far as I know no doctor has yet managed to distinguish exactly 
between the two things theoretically. I have only been persecuted by 
this business for a few years. Earlier quite unknown to me. At the 
moment of writing to you, I am not yet quite restored, and not yet 
fit for work again. Once again many weeks lost, and not even pour 
le roi de Prusse2* 

The criticism of Mr Dihring shows mainly—fear! I would be 
grateful if you could get Dühring’s book Gegen die Verkleinerer 
Carey’s for me, ditto von Thtinen’s Der isolirte Staat mit Bezug auf 
die Landwirtschaft (or something like that) (together with a note of the 
prices). Orders like this take too long from here. 

Finally, I must ask you to send me about 12 copies of my 
photogram (only that ruiracep). About one dozen friends are 
pestering me for them. 

Enclosed for Mrs Kugelmann the photograms of my eldest 
daughter Jenny and of Eleanor, who sends her best greetings to 
Franzchen. 

Ad vocem Liebknecht: let him play le petit grand homme just 
LITTLE WHILE. Tout s‘arrangera pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes 
possibles.° 

I still have all sorts of personal anecdota to relate. But I shall 
save them for next time when the writing position no longer 
bothers me. 

Salut. Yours 

K. Marx 

One of my friends here,’ who busies himself a lot with 
phrenology, stated yesterday about the photogram of your wife: 
very witty! So you see that phrenology is not the baseless art that 
Hegel thought it.