From William Spottiswoode   24 May 1880

Dear Mr. Darwin,

Many thanks for your note.¹ I thought it likely that you had furnished Dr. Hertzfeld with money for getting his goods out of the carriers’ hands; but he does not appear to have used it for that purpose. I also was grieved to see the man in his present plight; and this must be my apology for troubling you about him.² But I fear that his case is one of those in which it is impossible to do any real good; in fact, since he will not use any help given him, in a way calculated to enable him to help himself, I fear that any small donation would only draw him deeper in to slough of despond from which he can only be extri cated by being sent home through his consul as “a distressed Austrian subject”.

I fear that there is no chance of seeing you at our Conversazione at the R.S. on June 2nd.³

Yours very sincerely, | W Spottiswoode