[London,] 28 November 1860 

Dear Engels, 

My wife is now out of danger. Tell Lupus straight away, and give 
him my warm regards. The thing will drag on for a long time, and, 
as Allen says, when she is well again, she must go away at once for 
at least 4 weeks. 

As for myself—the danger of infection being greatest for 10 
days as from yesterday—I had myself revaccinated yesterday. Ditto 
Lenchen. A circumstance that has been of great help to me was 
having an appalling toothache. The day before yesterday, I had a 
tooth pulled out. While the fellow (Gabriel, he’s called) did, in fact, 
pull out the root, after causing me great physical pains, he left in a 
splinter. So, the whole of my face is sore and swollen, and my 
throat half closed up. This physical pressure contributes much to 
the disablement of thought and hence to one’s powers of 
abstraction for, as Hegel says, pure thought or pure being or 
nothingness is one and the same thing. 

Well, during these ten days, the isolation will have to be more 
stringent than ever. 

I cannot write, of course, while in this state and, since the bill of 
£50 drawn on Dana 2'/, months ago* has in any case not been 
properly worked off—my wife had all manner of nervous complaints 
even before her illness, so that sundry matters were left undone 
and hence I’m in a great fix—I would ask you, at least during the 
next fortnight, to do as much writing as possible. Under the 
present circumstances it might seem to be appropriate to write to 
my old lady.” But ever since she allowed the Prussian corporal‘ to 
marry into the family, all mrercourse has ceased in consequence of 
certain remarks passed by me. There has been an appalling spate 
of dunning from all quarters. To alleviate it, in some quarters at 
any rate, I have handed out the greater part of the £10. I 
wouldn’t write about all this to you, who already do all you can 
and more, but que faire? But what’s to be done? Moreover, all 

4 See this volume, p. 196. - > Henriette Marx - © Johann Jakob Conradi (married 
Marx’s sister, Emilie). 

128. Engels to Marx. 3 December 1860 22) 

avenues are closed to me, for, strangely enough (due perhaps to 
the improvement), I cannot leave the house, since at the very time 
when I should be seeing as little of her as possible (which, of 
course, she can’t be told), my wife wants me to be near her all the 
time. 

Allen is of the opinion that, if she hadn’t been twice vaccinated, 
she would not have pulled through. As things are, he considers 
even the sma. pox to be a blessing. For, so he told.me yesterday, he 
thought her nervous condition was such that this ailment was 
preferable to a nervous fever or something of that kind, which 
might otherwise have afflicted her. 

The poor children are very scared. Allen is going to vaccinate 
them and the whole Liebknecht family on Friday. 

You will probably be getting Herr Vogt on Friday.* There was 
some delay last week, because I was unable to complete the 
revision of the final sheets on time. 

My best thanks for the wine. Even before it arrived, Allen had 
prescribed wine for me, along with another medicine of a less 
pleasant kind. 

Your 
K. M.