Dear Fred,

The thing will soon be all over now. I think that by tomorrow or the day after at the latest I shall not merely be able to rise from my bed, but to go out, and that with this last malignant cur the series of carbuncles is finished, for this season. I also feel much better again generally. This last attack was atrocious. It did not merely put paid to any work, but to any reading, too, except Walter Scott.

I found the arsenic not at all unpleasant to begin with (when the taste of the cinnamon predominated). Now I am beginning to find its specific flavour most repugnant. Otherwise, I believe it was helpful. I took it 3 times a day from the outset.

How are things with your contributions for The Commonwealth?a

And with John Watts' "On Machinery"?b

a F. Engels, "What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland?"
b See this volume, pp. 224, 228.