PROFESSOR HERMANN PAGENSTECHER [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sne,---It is strange how persistent is the rumour, repeated in H. T. M.'s letter in your issue of the 4th inst., that the well. known Pagenstecher is dead. It has often reached me, and when two or three years ago it carne direct from Germany, I wrote to his bankers and was pleased, but not surprised, to learn that the report was untrue. It is true that " the original oculist of this name," after whom a street in Wiesbaden is called, died " from the effect of a gun accident " ; but that was some years before I first consulted his younger brother, Hermann, in 1888. With him I have since kept in touch by correspondence and also personally, both in London when he came to visit Queen Victoria, and frequently in Wiesbaden, the latest occasion being last year.
Through the kindness of former patients and their friends Lady Courtney and I have been enabled to send the aged Professor a substantial sum—nearly a tenth the value of his confiscated English property—for which, and especially for
the sympathy and gratitude thus shown to him, he writes most gratefully, and says that the names of the kind donors remain almost all in good remembrance, and bring to his recollection the long past happy (scho'ne) times. Some dona- tions to the Fund are still coming in.
With reference to your note to my former letter, may I say that there was no intention of implying any blame to Lord Blanesburgh's Committee ? Even if they were entitled to assist Germans who had not resided in England, of which I am uncertain, there was a time limit for applications, and the Professor's came too late.—I am, Sir, &c., Benwell, Godalming.
HOWARD HODGKIN.
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