Liége, Belgium, 21 September 1876 
Hotel de Suéde 

Dear Fleckles, 

I am sending you post-Haste a line or two concerning an urgent 
matter. 

A medical examination of my friend, Nikolai Utin, aged 35, has 
indicated incipient fatty degeneration of the heart. Karlsbad has 
been recommended to him, but since he is exceptionally busy in 
the spring, summer and autumn—he is an engineer in charge of 
big railway and similar undertakings—he can only spare time for 
treatment in December and during the winter months. 

Since he is greatly afraid of the cold, he would like to know 
whether he might not go to Vichy rather than Karlsbad. 

It is of course difficult, perhaps impossible, to reply to such a 
question without knowledge of his person. But at all events you 
will be able to give a general opinion as to whether Vichy might 
serve as a substitute for Karlsbad in cases of this kind. 

The man in question is one of my dearest friends and for that 
reason I take the liberty of appealing to your friendship and 
requesting your early reply (to my London address: 41 Maitland 
Park Road, London). The child” and I leave here for home 
tomorrow.'”* 

Yours very sincerely, 
Karl Marx 

a Engels quotes Liebknecht’s letter in German.- > Eleanor Marx 

[From Eleanor Marx in French] 

Dear Doctor, 

I’ve just received the photographs from Karlsbad—but only eleven—have you 
got one of them? If so, send it off to me—if not, will you tell Hirsch? 

I’m eagerly awaiting the letter you sent to London. Let me have some news about 
‘Marion’, which interests me greatly—and work away at the last acts. 

Good-bye—write and send me your portraits, 

Yours sincerely, 
Eleanor Marx