2. The Letters

326: Singer to Sigerist, London, 23 May 1946a¹

My dear Sigerist,

There is in London an interesting fellow whom [sic] I think could give a very acceptable lecture tour in America. He does not want to settle in America and he would, I believe, raise general interest by his personality if he were invited for a course of lectures. He is: Dr. Armando Cortesao

48 Stamford Court London W.6.

Cortesao is a Portuguese and was in the Portuguese Colonial service. He is a distinguished scholar and may be regarded as the real article. He is about fifty years of age, tall and very good-looking and speaks and writes English fluently and perfectly. He has been exiled by Salazaar [sic]² for his liberal views, but his children are not molested and his wife comes backwards and forward to Portugal quite freely. I like him greatly & have seen a good deal of him.

Ithink he would interest Americans because he has some novel views with new material on the origin, work and personality of Columbus. He has written several very fine books on the History of Cartography and has recently published two large volumes for the Hakluyt Society.³ He has also published a volume issued by the British Museum.

While Schuman was in London I introduced him to Cortesao to write a book for him. Once we got him on your side of the Atlantic I feel sure that he would be a very great success, perhaps the more so in that he does not want to settle there. His one desire is to get back to his own country as soon as Salazaar [sic] falls ?].

If you could help in the matter I should be very greatly indebted to you

Yours always,

Charles Singer

327: Singer to Sigerist, London, 23 May 1946b

My dear Sigerist,

As soon as you get this letter do let us know at once when you will be in London, when in Switzerland and when in Cornwall. We shall be in Switzerland from August 15th to September 15th and we shall be passing through Zürich. I should of course come to London if you were to pass through there and not be able to get to Cornwall.

I have to-day had a letter from Herbert Reichner – the bookseller of New York – in which he says that Emil Starkenstein of Prague was exterminated at Auschwitz. I had a strong impression that he had a chair of Pharmacology in America, but Reichner writes on the authority of Erik Waller.¹ If it is true would you – or someone else – write an obituary notice to put in Nature.² The more of these things appear the better.

Do let us hear from you.

Yours ever,

Charles Singer

328: Sigerist to Singer, Baltimore?, 30 May 1946

My dear Singer:

Ijust received your letter of May23 and I hasten to answer it. Mrs. Sigerist is in Switzerland already. She left here by boat on May 1. The girls and I have reservations on an airplane to Geneva on July 23 and plan to stay in Switzerland for about two months. I am delighted to know that you will be there also and we must arrange to meet by all means. My permanent address in Switzerland is that of my Mother (182 St. Albanring, Basel) and around the middle of August we plan to spend a few weeks in the Tessin where we shall have the use of a house that belongs to one of my wife’s friends who is in California at the moment.¹ Perhaps you could arrange to come and see us there. In the early part of August, I plan to go to one of the Swiss health resorts and have a complete rest of a few weeks and a treatment. I feel infinitely better than last year but these water treatments always do me a lot of good.

Ido not plan to go to England or any other country this year. Travelling, as you know, is still very complicated. The food situation is difficult in most countries and I do not want to interrupt my work here for too long a time because I am anxious to complete the first volume of my History this year.²

The chief purpose of my trip will be to see my Mother, my sister³ and a few other relatives and friends and to resume contact with Europe. Next year, if conditions permit, I would like to stay abroad for at least six months and visit a number of countries including, of course, England.

Thanks for drawing my attention to Dr. Armando Cortesao. The time is not very opportune for arranging lectures now that universities are closing for the summer but it may be possible to arrange some for next autumn.

We just had a very successful and pleasant annual meeting of the American Association of the History of Medicine and we plan to meet next year in April in Cleveland together with the Medical Library Association. I wish you could be with us at that time. Unfortunately our Noguchi Lectureship Fund is completely exhausted at the moment because we had a course of Lectures last winter and two volumes still have to be published, otherwise I would have invited you under that foundation. We also have quite a considerable deficit in this year’s operation of the Institute due primarily to the increased cost of printing. Edelstein’s book alone cost us $ 2,000 more than had been estimated.⁴ We have to cut down on personnel and our funds will be very limited next year.

With all good wishes, I am

Yours very cordially,

Henry E. Sigerist

329: Dorothea Singer to Sigerist, Kilmarth, 6 June 1946

My dear Dr. Sigerist,

We were most delighted to receive your letter to Charlie this morning and to know that Mrs. Sigerist and you will be in Switzerland. Our programme (which will certainly be modified if in its present form it does not enable us to see you) is as follows:-

Thursday, 15th August arrive by airplane at Geneva.

Friday, 16th August, Sleep at Ouchy in order to call on Professor Raymond [sic] at Lausanne.

Saturday, 17th August to Wednesday, 28th August – Les Plans de Frenières.

Wednesday 28th August to Saturday, September 7th Ringgenberg on Lake Brienz.

Saturday 7th September to Tuesday, 10th September St. Gall.

Tuesday, 10th September to Thursday 12th September – Schaffhausen.

Thursday 12th September, to Saturday, 14th September – Zürich.

Return home on Saturday, 14th September.

We had thought that probably you would be spending some time near Lake Brienz or at Zürich. If you will be at Basel from 11th or 12th to 14th or 15 September we can cancel our Zürich sojourn and go straight to Basel. Perhaps you would let me know which hotel there will be nearest to your mother’s house.

We shall have Nancy with us and one reason that Ichose Les Plans is in order that she shall see a glacier as there happens to be one within easy reach & Les Plans has a tempting looking little stream for swimming. We are planning to stop for an hour or two at Chur on our way to St. Gall as Charlie is tracing Alum trade routes through those regions.

With our most cordial greetings,

Yours very sincerely,

Dorothea Waley Singer

330: Sigerist to Dorothea Singer, Baltimore?, 13 June 1946

Dear Mrs. Singer:

Many thanks for your letter of June 6 with the program of your Swiss tour. I think the best for us would be to meet in Zurich because I am sure to be there from September 12 to 14. I will attend the annual meeting of the Société Helvétique des Sciences naturelles which takes place from September 6 to 9 and I will certainly stay in Zurich for some time thereafter.

It just occurs to me that the Swiss Society of the History of Science and Medicine is meeting in Zurich at the same time and that you may wish to attend some of the sessions. I will see to it that you will receive a program.

Looking forward with greatest pleasure to seeing you this summer, I am, with kind regards

Yours very cordially,

Henry E. Sigerist

331: Dorothea Singer to Sigerist, Kilmarth, 27 June 1946

Dear Dr. Sigerist,

Thank you for your letter of June 13th. We are delighted to hear that you will be in Zurich from September 12 to September 14, and we are writing to book rooms there for these dates.

If the Swiss Society for the History of Science and Medicine will be meeting then would you like a ten minute paper from me on Sir John Pringle?¹ I am preparing a study on him for the Annals of Science. I feel he is rather topical at the moment because of his interest in hospitals and goals [sic], & for Switzerland he has ideas on the neutrality of army hospitals in war.

Nancy will be with us. I think she was five years old when you last saw her in Switzerland.

Charlie joins me in cordial greetings.

Yours most sincerely,

Dorothea Singer

332: Singer to Sigerist, Kilmarth, 1 January 1947

My dear Sigerist,

I have been intending to answer your delightful wire on my birthday by sending you the Vesalius volume.¹ Week by week has passed and the printer has always temporised. At last he has produced it and it has gone to you. You will probably have received it by now and I hope that it will give you some pleasure.

Ivery deeply appreciated the letter that was addressed to me by some 154 colleagues of whom you were one. I can but express my grateful and humble thanks.

Iam sorry to say that all is not well with the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum.² Wellcome himself and the Wellcome Trustees have spent more than £ 500,000 (2,500,000 dollars) on it with scientific results that are almost nothing! The museum has a staff of 51 persons! This is far too large for usefulness. It has really almost no educational value and administration absorbs far too much energy and time. It is a shame to saddle Underwood with it.

The business now wants to absorb the space occupied by the museum. If it is to be re-established on another site, the whole of Underwood’s life will go on it. My view is that it is best to recognise frankly the obvious fact that Wellcome’s plan of a vast museum with no integration of parts is really unworkable and would be of little use even if, with much labour and treasure, it could be made to work. Most of the money should go on research. The lines of my suggestion are set out in the attached letter.³ It says nothing that I have not said a hundred times.

Ibelieve (though I have no authority to speak for them) that the Trustees have similar views to mine. I hope that they will be glad to have the matter raised in this way. My hope is too that they will invite you to come over to discuss the situation.

The simple fact is that the Wellcome Museum is a white elephant. Another precious year has been lost in getting it open and it really isn’t worth opening. It has been wrongly conceived from the first and had best go into cold storage before more lives are sacrificed to an unattainable and rather vulgar ideal.

All good wishes for 1947 to the family,

Yours ever,

Charles Singer

My latest information is that the Foundation (not the Trustees) want to be quit of the whole Wellcome Historical outfit. I cannot blame them. They are just businessmen & the Wellcome results are merely pitiable. But I have good hope that the Trustees will stand out &, if they do, they have the whip-hand.

Iwill keep you posted but though my letter to the Provost is not confidential, you had best keep quiet for a bit. Of course if I can get you invited over to report I would be delighted.

CS

333: Sigerist to Singer, Baltimore?, 7 February 1947

My dear Singer:

Ever since I came back from Europe last autumn, I meant to write you. I wanted to tell you how much I had enjoyed seeing Mrs. Singer and you and your charming daughter after all these many years. It was like old times again and coming back to Switzerland, Isometimes had the feeling as if the war had been just a nightmare.

I had all kind of difficulties in getting home. Erica and I were fortunate in being able to fly but my poor wife and Nora who could not get airplane tickets sailed from Genoa on a filthy old cargo that was flying the Panama flag and it took them 28 days to reach New York. Nora was four weeks late for her courses at Columbia but they admitted her nevertheless and she has caught up by now.¹

Then I meant to write you for your birthday² in order to tell you more than I could put in a telegram but I was so swamped with work that my correspondence was badly neglected. Well, you know that all of us remembered you when you completed your 70th year. We are grateful for all that you have done for us and for suffering humanity, and I only hope that you will have many more years, years of peace that you may devote to rounding up your historical work.

It was excellent news to hear that your Vesalius is out. It has not arrived yet but I expect it any day and I am looking forward with greatest pleasure to seeing it soon.³

Did I ever send you my book, CIVILIZATION AND DISEASE, the Messenger Lectures that I gave at Cornell University?⁴ My last year’s little volume, THE UNIVERSITY AT THE CROSSROADS, was sent to you by the publisher Ihope.⁵ The Institute just published a very delightful little book on Brown-Séquard, the Noguchi Lectures that Olmsted gave here last year. I am mailing you a copy under separate cover and I am sure you will like the little book.⁶

Iam sorry to hear that there is some trouble with the Wellcome Historical Museum.⁷ I also had a letter from Underwood on the subject. I have read your memorandum very carefully and I can only say that I agree with every word you wrote.⁸ There can be no doubt that the Museum should develop into a department of the University and the best the Trustees could do would be to endow a chair. I am fully aware that this will take a great deal of time and I am sorry for Underwood who will probably spend the rest of his life preparing somebody else’s nest.

One result of last year’s summer in Switzerland was that I have just resigned my position at the Johns Hopkins University and that we plan to return to Switzerland permanently and to settle down somewhere in the Ticino.⁹ I find it absolutely impossible to write my History of Medicine here where I am swamped day and night with visitors and requests and where I am wasting an enormous amount of time with petty routine or showing people around. I can write my book only if I can devote all my time and attention to the task and I very strongly feel that this book is the most important contribution that I can make under the circumstances. I am, of course, fully aware that I am giving up a great deal here and that I shall miss my students very much but the subject of medical history is well established in the States by now and the Institute will continue its work.

You may have heard that the University of Wisconsin appointed my old student, Erwin H. Ackerknecht as Professor of the History of Medicine in the Medical School. The chair of the History of Science was divided into two associate professorships, one for the history of biological sciences that was given to Stauffer, a young man, student of Sarton who has not published much because he spent three years in the armed forces but seems to be promising. The other chair for the history of the exact sciences was offered to I. Bernard Cohen who, however, preferred to remain at Harvard.¹⁰ Wisconsin in addition has George Urdang and the American Institute of Pharmacy [sic] and they have just purchased the beautiful Thordarson Collection for $300,000.¹¹

Henry Guerlac is now professor of the history of science at Cornell University in Ithaca where he is doing extremely well and is becoming very popular.¹² And so, I really feel that the field is well established and will continue to develop in a satisfactory way.

We plan to leave here in the last week of June and by October 1, I hope to be well settled in Switzerland. I am looking forward to being closer to you and my other old European friends and I hope that we shall meet often. It is not too easy to find a house these days but it is not too difficult in the Ticino where one sometimes finds very pleasant old houses that have stood the test of time. I have been promised a research fellowship and a grant-in-aid of research by one of the foundations and with this, my Retirement Annuity, and royalties from books I expect to be able to manage quite well.

There is one more matter that I would like to bring up, namely, that of the series of ancient classics of science that we once discussed with Underwood in Europe. I think Drabkin has written you in the matter concerning his edition and translation of Caelius Aurelianus.¹³ He is anxious to get it out soon and so am I. It is the first translation into any modern language and the text is greatly improved although there is no manuscript available. Drabkin’s manuscript is in perfect shape and could go to the press immediately. I have in addition two other manuscripts that are ready, namely, the fragments of Praxagoris [sic],¹⁴ Greek text and translation and an English translation of Soranus. I think it would be a pity if these books were scattered. They should appear in the same series. Iapproached the Loeb Classical Library people at Harvard last year but they were not very encouraging. They are anxious to complete the series as soon as possible because at that time under the will of the donor all money will be turned over to the Classics Department of Harvard. If the Wellcome Museum could start such a series of classics soon it would be splendid, otherwise I would have to try to publish the books somewhere here in the States.

So much for today. With kind regards to Mrs. Singer and yourself, I am

Yours very cordially,

Henry E. Sigerist

334: Singer to Sigerist’s secretary, Kilmarth, 3 March 1947

Dear Miss Miller,¹

Would you be so very kind as to let me have a complete list of the publications of the Johns Hopkins Institute of the History of Medicine? That is to say those during the time of Professor Sigerist.

Ishould also be very grateful if you would let me have the dates in Professor Sigerist’s life and a list of his major works. I want to write something about him in one of the English journals. You can give me all the information required and save my searching on this side.²

With kind regards,

Believe me to be,

Yours sincerely,

Charles Singer

335: Singer to Sigerist, Kilmarth, 14 March 1947

My dear Sigerist,

Many thanks for your letter of February 7 which I should have answered weeks ago.

Ithink you have to be congratulated on resigning your chair. I am sure you will get far more work done and it is the right thing to do while you are young enough to work. How delightful if you can really settle at Lugano. Upon my word if I could get such property as I have out of this country – which I certainly cannot – I would join you so that we could combine our libraries. It was such a great pleasure meeting in Switzerland and rediscovering each other. Would it not be delightful if you could stay with us on your way to Switzerland? Do try. What an awful time Mrs. Sigerist and Nora must have had.¹ I know those boats flying the Panama flag. For some reason or other they escape some sort of toll in going through the Canal.

Yes I got your Civilization and Disease and wrote to you about it, and also your University at the Crossroads.² You will be able to fire off a good many atomic bombs of that kind from Switzerland. I think you are fortunate in planning to leave America just now. It looks to me as though there can’t be much good coming with the mood that is crystallising there.³

Of course we agree about the Wellcome. I have no doubt that the advice that Iventured to tender to them will be accepted in due course for the simple reason that there is no other way to run their Institute. For the moment, however, I seem to have blotted my copy book. They are rather annoyed with me for telling them the truth. I am particularly sorry for Underwood. His handicap is that he is a late starter and the refusal of his Board to face the fact that their scheme for a Museum is no good will waste his best years. In the old days Iused to worry that I had not an Institute and a staff. Looking back on it all I am quite sure that I have had the best of it, and have been much happier and have done more for not having had those[?] things. I don’t despair that the Wellcome Trustees may see that I am right and ask you and me to report on the matter.

Iwas very glad to hear about Ackerknecht at Wisconsin, and have written to congratulate him. I am also writing to Guerlac.

Iheard that Drabkin had edited Caelius Aurelianus, but I don’t think that I have heard from him. Philologically it is an extraordinarily interesting book. I can't remember that it has been edited since the 18th century.⁴

Of course the Wellcome people should endow your Classical series, and I will do what I can. It is a most complicated situation there because really there are two separate Boards and Underwood has to deal with the difficult one. Ifortunately have the easy one though they are a little angry with me at the moment. However they treated me pretty well over Vesalius and I can't complain.

Iam putting up to them a project for a translation of Galen’s De anatomicis administrationibus.⁵ I am asking for the full time services of a Greek scholar for a year, and at the same time for the publication of a translation which I have completed of Book VIIof the Fabrica.⁶ I don’t think that requests of this kind in the least interfere with suggestions such as yours about Drabkin and your Fragments of Praxagoras and the translation of Soranus. They have plenty of money (even on the American scale) and they don’t really know what to do with it. I think, therefore that a large scheme really appeals to them more than a small one, and if I can put to them a whole series of translations they are more likely to help than for one or two. The difficulty is not money but getting them to see the point of the thing.

Do try to see if Nora could get me Vol. 1 of the 4th series of the Surgeon General’s Catalogue. I have all four series except for this one volume. It really would be a kind act if you can get it for me.

I have finished the text of my Alum volume.⁷ I am touching it up and attending to pictures, maps etc. By the way if you ever want anything of the sort you would find that Alinari of Florence does extraordinarily good colour work at an extremely low rate.⁸ I am having four or five coloured collotypes made by him for this Alum volume.

You know, do you not, that McKie and I have undertaken to do an Anthology of Science for the Encylopaedia Britannica? As soon as I can get this Alum book away I must look through his material. It will be a volume of readings for my Short History of Science.⁹

We have just had Farrington and his wife here for a couple of weeks. They asked a good deal after you. I fear that his health is not good and that his strength is not equal to doing Galen’s De anatomicis administrationibus. That is one of the reasons why I am doing it, but in fact it is a book I always wanted to tackle.

With all good wishes from us both to you both and looking forward to seeing you in England.

Yours most cordially,

Charles Singer

You will come to stay with us – both of you – on your way to Switzerland. I shall build on that.

336: Sigerist’s secretary to Singer, Baltimore?, 15 March 1947¹

Dear Dr. Singer:

Thank you for your letter of March 3. I hope that the enclosed material will give you the information which you need. If you are interested in a detailed account of the activities of the Institute, may Irefer you to the Bulletin 1941, Vol. 10, pp. 364–416 and other annual reports of the Institute from 1940 on which appear each year in the July issue.

You can doubtless imagine how desolated we all feel at the idea of Dr. Sigerist’s leaving us. But as far as his own creative activities are concerned, it is certain that he has made the correct decision.

With kindest regards,

Yours sincerely,

Genevieve Miller

337: Sigerist to Singer, Baltimore?, 18 June 1947¹

Dear Singer:

Ijust discovered that I have not answered your last letter yet and I am using the last few days at the Institute for paying off old debts.

It was very kind of you to ask us to stay at your home on our way to Europe but we expect to fly from Washington to Geneva on a TWA² plane on the 24th of this month. It is very difficult to get passage on ships and besides I am restless and am anxious to get settled in Switzerland soon so that I can resume my work. My mother bought a little house for us in Pura, a village between Lugano and Ponte Theresa [sic]³ about two miles from the Italian border. The house is in the midst of vineyards, has an ideal location and I only hope that it is large enough for my books. We have not seen it yet but I hope to be there in less than two weeks. Until the time we get settled, you can always reach us through the address of my Mother (182 St.Albanring, Basel, Switzerland) where I am sure to spend some time while we are waiting for the books and furniture to arrive.

We saw a good deal of Underwood and enjoyed very much having him with us. He gave an excellent address at the Cleveland meeting and made many friends.⁴ He is a most likeable fellow and he certainly has not an easy job at the Wellcome Museum.

The question of my successor has not been settled yet and I do not expect any decision to be made before the autumn.⁵ The Committee that has been appointed to make recommendations is a very good one with Sidney Painter, head of the History Department as chairman, the deans of the School of Medicine and School of Hygiene, George Corner and Larkey.⁶ The University seems determined not only to maintain the Institute but to expand it and to continue to cultivate both history and sociology of medicine. I do not envy my successor beccause he will have to spend his entire first year running around in search of funds.

Iwas delighted to hear about your project of a translation of Galen’s De anatomicis administrationibus.⁷ This is an extremely important book and a translation is badly needed.

Well, so much for today. I’ll write again from Switzerland soon. I do not know yet when we shall be able to move into the house but we should be there by the end of July latest and if you should come to Switzerland again this summer, do by all means look us up. We have a guest room and in addition a small pension near by, for the overflow.

With all good wishes to Mrs. Singer and yourself, I am

Yours very cordially,

Henry E. Sigerist

338: Singer to Sigerist, Par, Cornwall, 5 September 1947 (telegram)¹

WILL YOU JOIN PROTEST AGAINST PARTICIPATION IN LAUSANNE CONFERENCE OF DIPGEN [sic] AND FELDHAUS AND STICKER WHO ALL THREE HAVE SHOCKING RECORDS STOP² MRS SINGER AND I also BELIEVE OTHER ENGLISH SCIENTISTS WILL ONLY ATTEND IF THOSE THREE ARE EXCLUDED FROM CONGRESS

CHARLES SINGER KILMARTH PAR CORNWALL ENGLAND

339: Sigerist to Singer, Pura, Switzerland, 7 September 1947

My dear Singer,

Thank you for your telegram. I had solved my problem by deciding not to attend the Lausanne conference. I feel exactly as you do, and do not want to meet the Germans, particularly those you mention. Sticker is a vicious old fool; Feldhauser [sic] criminal, and Diepgen is the worst of all because he is thoroughly dishonest, a clerico-fascist opportunist, who went along with Hitler as long as things went well, but always kept a door open for retreat. Now he can boast that he never joined the Nazi party, and I hear that he has a very influential position in Germany, being chairman of the National medical examination board, – a most despicable individual.

Now, I am not sure that protesting will help much, and I can imagine that Raymond [sic]¹ is in a difficult situation. The conference is one of the Academy of which these Germans are members, and it may be difficult not to invite them, since they have not been expelled from the Academy. On the other hand it would be difficult to expel them, since they have been cleared by de-Nazification courts.²

The problem is really very hard to solve because if we simply abstain from attending the meetings, the Germans in their traditional aggressiveness will soon take over the organizations. It would have been much better to hold the first conference of the Academy in London or Paris, where it would have been much easier to leave out the Germans. Ifor one will not attend the Lausanne conference.

Isometimes wonder if it would not be better to disband the old organizations, the International Academy of the History of Science, and the International Society of the History of Medicine, and to create new ones. There was so much failure and unpleasantness in the short history of both these groups that it might be better to bury them and to make a fresh start. You did not attend the Congress in Yugoslavia in 1938,³ or you would remember how it developed into a regular battlefield on which Gomoiu⁴ and other Balkan celebrities fought out their personal feuds, and the large German and Italian delegations practically took over the Society. At that time Idecided that I would never again attend any meeting of this Society.

We are beginning to be settled here and like the place very much.⁵ It is about ten miles from Lugano on the way to Ponte Tresa, entirely off the tourist lane. The house is a little small for the many books⁶ but very comfortable, and we have a nice garden. I hope you will visit us some day soon.

Iwas much upset to hear that the collections of the Wellcome Museum are going to be stored for a number of years. I had counted on them for the illustrations of my book. Underwood, I am sure, must be very disappointed.

With kind regards to Mrs. Singer and to yourself I am

Yours as ever,

Henry E. Sigerist

340: Singer to Sigerist, Kilmarth, Cornwall, 15 September 1947

My dear Sigerist,

Many thanks for your letter of September 7. Dorothea gets into a flutter about the invitation to the Germans to Lausanne. Personally I feel that the meeting at Lausanne must be such a poor sort of show because of the European situation, that it matters very little. Anyhow the invitation to the three Germans – who are all thoroughly undesirable even as Germans, – has been withdrawn & they will not be given visas. So we have thus got in one on them. Your solution, busting the whole thing & starting again is, I am sure, the right one.¹

I have said that I am going to Lausanne. This is very much against my will. Idislike these meetings but Dorothea is so very keen on them. But Imore than half hope that it will be impossible to go. The financial and food crisis is such in this country that travelling may well be impossible. Also we get weekly poorer or prices weekly rise, which is the same thing[.]

Ishould love to come or to see you but I had better not. It is really no time to be out of one[’]s own country. Nobody knows when frontiers will close or currencies be closed. It is missing an opportunity that may not come again but the times are just not propitious.

As for the Wellcome Museum, Igrieve less than you. The trouble was that the exhibition was too large. They have an excellent house for it in an excellent position. My hope is that they will have a series of exhibitions illustrating special points & I feel confident that they will be able to give you all the illustrations that you want.²

My book on Chemical Industry is now going into page proof. It has been through 2 sets of galleys.³

What a world.

All good wishes from us both to you both: it is good to think that you are comfortably

settled⁴ – I wish I was settled in mind!

Yours ever,

Charles Singer

341: Sigerist to Singer, Pura, 22 September 1947

My dear Singer,

Just a line to thank you for your letter of September 15 and to tell you how delighted I am to hear that the Germans will not be invited to the Lausanne Conference.¹ Those three certainly are a particularly bad lot, and it would have been a disgrace to have them come to the meeting.

If you do go to Lausanne, I wish Dorothea and you would come and visit with us. We have no maid at the moment, and the house is not quite furnished yet, but there is a little pension a few minutes from our house, and we would be delighted to put you up there as our guests. I need not tell you what a very great pleasure it would be to all of us to have you here.²

It was good news to hear that your book on Chemical Industry will be out soon.³ I shall be very glad to review it for the Bulletin. I have been writing a lot of reviews these days and find it the best way to keep up-to-date.

A new edition of my book on Soviet medicine should be out soon, completely rewritten, rearranged, and with the statistics brought up-to-date.⁴ There will be about a dozen translations of it because there is much demand for such a book in many European countries.

Hoping very much to see you, I am with warm regards to both of you

Yours very cordially,

Henry E. Sigerist

342: Singer to Sigerist, Kilmarth, Cornwall, 12 December 1948

My dear Sigerist,

Although Ipassed my seventieth birthday more than two years ago, it is only within the last few weeks that I have been allowed even to see the articles for the volume to have been presented to me on that occasion.¹ I have just read your contribution & it is on that account, in the first instance, that I am writing to you, to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the great honour that you have done me.² It is an honour that comes to few who are far worthier of it than I. That is always in my mind. And I understand that at long last there really is some hope of getting the volume into print. But you know, as well as I, of the massive difficulties now in every step in publication.

I have read your essay on Hartlieb with the utmost interest & profit.³ It throws much light on many publications of the sort & you have greatly enlightened me on the part of Albertus & pseudo-Albertus in ‘curiosa’ literature.⁴

I came across one point on which I can throw a little light[.] It is on the curious word[?] GUMMERAS. In a difficulty of that sort I always fly to Goetz & Loewe Thesaurus Glossarum Emendatarum which always seems to me by far the most useful dictionary of medieval Latin in our line of country. It gives GUNNARII= ARTEPELLONES & then ARTEPELLONES = ARTEPELLIONES and then again PELLIO = δɛρματoυργó ⁵ & again PELLIONES = SEDUCTORES. So that it seems that GunnariI i.e. gummares are cosmeticists which is just what one would expect them to be!

Ihope that you have benefitted by your quiet life & that your great book advances.⁶ We had good news of you from the Sartons who spent a week or two with us. We had hoped to have visited you this autumn but the political situation looked too threatening.⁷ Not only did it seem possible that there would be war but the repeated strikes in France would have made travel very difficult if we had not been able to get seats in a plane, which in any case was not easy. Perhaps we may come in 1949.

My History of Chemical Industry is printed & I am told that a very few copies are now available, though I have not yet seen one.⁸ I go to London this week to sign the special copies. The book (in which I have no financial interest) must be extremely dear for the illustrations have been immensely costly & nothing has been spared in printing & design. I am now preparing for press that Anglo-Saxon magical text on which I have been working for ages with J.H.G. Grattan. I am hoping to get off the MS by the end of this year. Grattan’s health is failing rapidly & I want him to see it before he dies.⁹

We go on pretty well here. Dorothea is somewhat of an invalid and has to rest a good deal. She cannot walk far but she could, I think, safely fly to Switzerland. I am well & in full work & have become a grandfather. Andrew’s wife had a son a few days ago.

Iam toying with the idea of taking a trip to the West Indies in Februar –March–April with an old medical friend who has just retired. But I daresay nothing will come of it.

Do let us hear how you are & how the work goes. And our affectionate greetings to Emmy, Erica and yourself.

Yours ever & again many thanks

Charles Singer

Let me know if I can do anything for you in England

343: Sigerist to Singer, Pura, 12 January 1949

My dear Singer,

Many thanks for your letter of December 12. I was very glad to hear that you have been told that we have written a volume for your 70th birthday. It is such a long time that I sent the manuscript to Underwood that I hardly remember what I wrote. All I know is that the Hopkins manuscript is very interesting and raises a lot of problems many of which I have not solved.¹ I am very interested in your interpretation of the term gummeras and I have no doubt that it is correct.

I had a letter from Underwood a few days ago and I was very glad to hear that he was going ahead with your volume.² He is an extremely nice fellow and means very well indeed – he is sending me illustrations of my book in a most charming way – but we all know that he has a very difficult Board to deal with.

We like it here very much and I do not think that I could ever live in a city again. Last week I sent the first 525 type-written pages of my first volume to the Oxford Press in New York and the rest will follow soon.³ The first volume took somewhat more time than I had expected partly because the Babylonian literature is so frightfully scattered but chiefly because in this first volume Ideveloped my method of approach and presentation. After having spent months with the evil spirits and devils of Babylonia I am looking forward to writing volume 2 that deals with Greece and Rome.

The West Indies are delightful particularly at this time of the year. I once spent some time on the Bahamas and I do not think that I have ever seen such happy looking Negroes anywhere in the world. I also remember two visits to Trinidad with much pleasure. But I hope first of all to see you and Mrs. Singer in Pura in the course of the year. You can fly to Zurich and from there it is only four hours to Lugano by train.

Iwas very sorry to hear that Mrs. Singer does not feel well but I am sure that a few weeks in Switzerland would be very good for her. Leading a quiet life here I feel better than ever and I can work twelve hours a day without effort as long as I stay in my retreat.

Well I very much hope to see you both in the course of the year and in the meantime I am with warm regards in which Emmy joins

Yours as ever,

Henry E. Sigerist

344: Sigerist to Singer, Pura, 22 March 1950

My dear Singer,

I have not written for ages but there was actually very little to report, as I am leading a very quiet and contemplative life in my village. The first volume of my History is in the press.¹ I am writing the second that deals with Graeco-Roman and Hindu medicine, and if all goes well, I hope to complete the manuscript by the end of the year. At the same time I have been doing some preparatory work for Volume III, which will be devoted to the Middle Ages, and in which the Arabs will take a central place. It is a gigantic piece of work, as you well realize, for which I have to re-read all the basic texts and this means that I had to brush up on my Oriental languages. It is an immense satisfaction, however, to have the time and leisure to do this kind of work.

Emmy and I are perfectly delighted to know that you will be in Switzerland this summer, and I wish you would plan to stay as long as possible in Pura. I am including a prospectus of our local inn, which can be recommended very highly. It has been completely reconditioned and is under new management.

Ithink it is an excellent idea to hold an informal medico-historical conference here, where the environment is most pleasant and where we shall have ample time for discussion. Many American colleagues will be here, and I am sure you will enjoy meeting them. I also count on Underwood, Guthrie and probably some others from England.²

This coming weekend I expect ten Swiss medical historians and historians of science for a similar conference, and I am sending you the program enclosed.³ It is quite inofficial and will be very informal, but it is the type of meeting that I like best. The annual convention of the Swiss Society of the History of Medicine and Science is usually so rushed that there is not sufficient time for discussion and personal intercourse.

Imay see you before August, because Janet Vaughan persuaded me to give the Bryce Lecture at Somerville College in Oxford June 1st. I will speak on the Latin medical literature of the early Middle Ages, and it will be my swan song on this subject.⁴ I also promised Underwood to address the Historical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. I would like to take advantage of my visit to London to secure illustrations for my second volume. No city in the world has such a wealth of museums and libraries.

It is hard to realize that four years have passed since we last met,⁵ but it is good to know that we shall be together again this summer.

With warm wishes to Dorothea and yourself, in which Emmy joins

Yours very cordially,

Henry E. Sigerist

345: Singer to Sigerist, Kilmarth, Cornwall, 27 March 1950

CONFIDENTIAL

My dear Sigerist,

Iwas indeed glad of your long and friendly letter of March 22nd, and to learn that you are so well and happy. I was especially glad at the news that Vol. I of your History is in the press.¹ I look forward to it eagerly. It shows wonderful courage to have attacked such an enormous task. I congratulate you.

I would like nothing so much as to join the party at Pura,² and I hope to do so; but there are difficulties. I have been thinking them over and have decided that I must tell you frankly about them.

The first is Dorothea’s health. She is now extremely deaf and can hear only with an apparatus. Unfortunately she is bad with anything mechanical, and it is constantly out of order. Further, her sight has deteriorated, her blood-pressure is high, and she has much atheroma. She is medically 10–15 years older than her age (66), but remains irrepressibly and dangerously active. Of course what I fear is a cerebral haemorrhage. The prospect of that, far from home, unnerves me. She is very anxious to travel but is medically quite unfit for it. Nor do I like to leave her for any length of time.

There is another matter which is even harder to explain on paper, but I must try. I have been receiving a subvention from the Wellcome Trustees for the last seven years. They most generously published my Tabulae sex and have now in the press my Anglo-Saxon Medicine and translation of Vesalius on the Brain.³ They have stood by me really nobly. I am finishing the revision of a translation of Galen’s De anatomicis administrationibus for them.⁴

Five years ago the Wellcome Foundation (not quite the same as the Wellcome Trustees) asked my advice on a Director to their Historical Medical Museum. Inamed Underwood, who I then knew but little but whose work I had followed. He was quite the best available. But a year ago he became my son-in-law, which was an event of which I had not even thought. This raises a fear in me of the appearance of nepotism, which I would avoid at all costs. This relation is further complicated by the fact that Underwood has now naturally become the literary adviser of the Wellcome Trust in place of the inefficient Dawkes [sic] who in the meantime has died.⁵

The complications do not end here. Underwood undertook the editing of my Festschrift four years ago.⁶ This has got into printing difficulties, of the nature of which I am only too glad to be ignorant.

Nor does the complication end at this. Imperial Chemical Industries – I.C.I., the largest industrial undertaking in the Empire – approached me ten months ago, asking for suggestions for some ‘cultural’ undertaking. The firm is, after Nuffield, the largest benefactor of British universities.⁷ Some of the directors are anxious at the low cultural level of technicians. I was asked to plan a major work that might be used for higher, that is post-graduate, educational purposes. After some discussion, I suggested a five-volume history of technology with Holmyard as my co-editor.⁸ I felt a younger collaborator necessary, because of my age. I think that the scheme will go through, and that I shall get the ‘all clear’ about June next. I therefore want to finish Galen by then and so fulfill my undertakings for the Wellcome Trust, and then hitch on to I.C.I. Should this mature, I should spend the summer vacation getting this scheme going. (I have of course told the Wellcome Trustees of this).

Ienclose a rough draft of the plan of the work. NeI ther the scheme nor any announcement of it may be published, but it is not secret – just confidential. It may be discussed with any reasonably discreet person. (I have express permission for this.) Criticisms at this stage are more than welcome. I am assured that any further funds needed are likely to be forthcoming, but that it is inadvisable to enlarge the plan until it has been formally passed. To do so might prejudice or delay its passage. But any modification within the plan will certainly be most gratefully and carefully considered.

Now you know the outline of my position. If you come to Oxford in June, as I hope you will, I will make a point of seeing you. I shall be in London all or most of May and can stay on. Or alternatively you would be most welcome here. Do let me know early what you decide.

With warmest wishes to Emmy and to yourself,

Yours always,

Charles Singer

346: Sigerist to Singer, Pura, 19 April 1950

My dear Singer,

Thanks ever so much for your very informative letter. You certainly had plenty of complications, and I fully appreciate the situation. I am very delighted, however, to see that you are so active and full of plans. I need not tell you that I am looking forward to every one of your publications.

Your translation of Galen’s De anatomicis administrationibus will be a most important contribution.¹ Do you know, by the way, that Dr. Sidney Licht in Boston has commissioned a retired Harvard classicist, Professor Green, to translate some Galenic writings, and I understand that De sanitate tuenda is in the press. Charles C. Thomas in Springfield, Illinois, is publishing the book, and I have been asked to write a preface for it.²

Your project for a history of technology is admirable.³ Strange enough there is no such book, and it is needed today more than ever. It is the kind of book that all historians, no matter what their specialty may be, will have to use, because it is impossible to write any history today without considering the influence of science and technology.

Iplan to fly to London Monday, May 29, and hope that you will still be there at that time. I expect to be at Oxford from May 31 to June 5; then again in London until June 12, when I will be flying back to Zurich.

With warm wishes and hoping to see you soon, I am

Yours very sincerely,

Henry E. Sigerist

347: Singer to Sigerist, Kilmarth, Cornwall, 25 April 1950

My dear Sigerist,

Very many thanks for your letter of April 19th.

Iexpect to be in London when you arrive on Monday, May 29th. I shall probably have to leave on Tuesday, June 6th, and after then I shall be in the North. I may be in Oxford on June 4th or 5th, but at any rate we shall have May 29th–31st in London at the same time.

Iwas glad you told me about Green’s translation of the Galenic writings. I have written to Charles Thomas of Springfield, (who you say is publishing it,) to tell him of my project, so that we do not overlap. As it happens, I know Thomas well by correspondence, because he is printing a translation by me of Benivieni which I am bringing out with Esmond Long.¹

About the summer. We really don’t know. It is all a question of Dorothea’s health. She is very anxious to go to Amsterdam, and I do not see how she can possibly do Pura as well, within a few days. There is moreover the question of expense which, now that the £. has fallen, is a very serious matter. Even if she goes to Amsterdam, I do not think she will hear very much, because her hearing-aid is more often out of order than in, and she needs now the very highest magnification. My experience with her is, that she is the better for short visits, but quite unable to sustain long ones; so perhaps, if it can be at all managed, she will be the better for a visit to Amsterdam.

I have just received from Schuman copies of the new edition of my History of Biology.² I have altered the text quite a bit, but the reproduction of the figures is poor.

You will be sorry to have heard of the death of Clifford Dobell. He was a first class scholar and a very nice fellow, though almost pathologically retiring.

Iwish I could go to Florence to greet Corsini, but I cannot get away.³ Indeed, all my movements are uncertain, for reasons which I have told you.

With kindest greetings, and best wishes to the family.

Yours always,

Charles Singer

P.S. Peyer has been staying with us for two or three days and has just left.⁴ He is a good fellow, and what an excellent book that is by him on the vertebral theory of the skull.

Ileave tomorrow for London where I shall be for the whole of May. My address there is, as usual, The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, SW. You will, of course, be a guest there.

348: Sigerist to Singer, Pura, 2 May 1950

My dear Singer,

Underwood just wrote me that Nancy had a baby, which makes you a grandfather; I wish to congratulate you most cordially and can tell you that the same is going to happen to me toward the end of the year. Nora is expecting a child.¹ You probably saw her in Zurich in 1946. She and her husband are still in Rome at the moment, but are returning to the States in September.

I had not heard of the death of Clifford Dobell. He was a first-rate scholar, indeed, and his death is a great loss,

How nice that Peyer was with you. He is a perfectly delightful man, of whom I am very fond, and his latest book is very remarkable.² He has a summer house not very far from us, in a region that is rich in fossils and where he does some digging.

Idid not go to Florence eI ther, much as I would have liked to pay my tribute to Corsini and to see Florence again, where I have not been since the war. However, I cannot interrupt my work too often, and now during the Holy Year Italy is frightfully crow[ded].

Iam so glad that you will be in London at the end of May when Iarrive, and I am looking forward with greatest pleasure to seeing you soon.

With all good wishes, I am

Yours as ever

Henry E. Sigerist

349: Singer to Sigerist, Truro, Cornwall, 16 April 1951¹

My dear Sigerist,

Ihope all is well with you, and that Vol. IIof the great work is making good progress.²

There is a point concerning the Hippocratic Works that has just come under my notice. I write this because you will have that matter in hand for the next volume. I am at the moment examining a thesis for the Ph.D. of the University of London presented by one W.C. Wake, the title of which is “The Corpus Hippocraticum”.³ It deals with the question of assignation to different (of course unknown and un-named) authors of the various members of the Collection. The method it adopts is statistical analysis of sentences length as a criterion of style. I believe that it is a valuable method which in future will have to be considered in connection with all classical literary products. It is very recent in origin, the pioneer being G. Udney [sic] Yule,⁴ and it practically dates from 1945 and is practically confined to English writers. The actual results are interesting and in general they agree with the literary results, They have been applied not only to the Hippocratic Corpus but also the biological works of Aristotle. Wake has abstracted them for an article in the Classical Quarterly, which I hope will accept it. If I can get a typewritten copy of the thesis itself or a typewritten copy of the article for the Classical Quarterly I will let you have it as soon as I can. You ought at least to refer to the method.

Now something about myself. You know we have had an influenza epidemic in England. Just as it was disappearing I managed to catch it and it was followed by pneumonia. I was sent into hospital eighteen days ago feeling very ill, but was put at once on penicillin and responded immediately. I cannot say that after the first day I was other than perfectly comfortable. I am still in hospital though now getting up and walking a little way each day. I feel now perfectly well and as well as I ever have in my life.

As you know, I had intended to come to Lugano to consult with you about the History of Technology,⁵ and Imperial Chemical Industries are willing to pay for the trip. Under the circumstances I think I had better come as early as possible, if you think that this season of the year is propitious for Lugano. Is it sunny and warm at the end of April or the beginning of May? Ishould, of course, come by air to the nearest point. I think I should probably put up in one of those comfortable hotels at Paradiso⁶ and spend a day or two with you at Pura, if this is agreeable to you. Of course I don’t want to come if the weather is likely to be the wrong sort for me. If this is so I’d rather come later in the year when I can equally well manage.

Ijust don’t know whether Dorothea will come with me or not. It depends upon her general state of health and her other engagements. I think myself she is better in Cornwall. Whether she comes or not, I thought of travelling with a very old friend of mine, R. A. Greeves, who is at present convalescing from an operation on the prostate. He is much in the same state as I am, needing a little sun and quiet change. He is a distinguished ophthalmic surgeon, extremely musical and a very good linguist. I am sure you’d enjoy his company. He and I have been very close friends since we were young men.⁷

A little later in the year I intend to go to Amsterdam to spend a time with R. J. Forbes.⁸ Originally I had intended to go to Amsterdam first, but owing to this pneumonia I think I’d better get south before I go to Holland.

My secretary, to whom this is dictated, tells me that the galleys of the translation of the Seventh Book of Vesalius have arrived, but I have not seen them yet.⁹ I am hoping to get hold of them during the day. I wish the Galen had got as far, but the work really is finished and can go to the printer as soon as he will accept it.¹⁰

This letter is dictated in hospital to my secretary, who calls for that purpose daily, but by the time it reaches you I shall, Ihope, be at home.

With all kind wishes to the family and yourself,

Yours ever,

Charles Singer

350: Singer to Sigerist, Par, Cornwall, 23 April 1951 (telegram)

IS LUGANO WEATHER USUALLY FAVOURABLE END APRIL STOP THINKING OF COMING NEXT WEEK

SINGER