ALS signed “Mark,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.5 x 7, Dollis Hill House letterhead, August 12, 1900. Handwritten letter to "Fuller," first commenting on his late daughter, Susy, then discussing the benefits of plasmon—a proprietary dried milk in which Clemens was an investor.
In full: "We shall indeed be glad to get Susy's letter; any line from her hand is precious to us, now. Six days hence the anniversary will come again with its heart-break—August 18th. She will then have been gone from us four years; it will then be five years & a month since I last saw her in life. She died by the ignorance of physicians. There was nothing the matter with her which an osteopath could not have cured. The Lord Chief Justice of England died by the hands of the physicians & surgeons two days ago. They operated upon him with the knife for gastritis. The osteopath who would allow any gastritis case to die on his hands would deserve hanging; for by his methods it is no more formidable than is a baby's belly-ache. Livy & I dined with the Chief Justice a month ago, & he was as hearty as an athlete. If I had foreseen this attack I could have had him cured & on his feet in three days. We got Stanley transferred to the right hands just in time; in the 'professional' judgment he was already a dead man, & eligible for Westminster Abbey in 24 hours. Two days later he was sitting in his chair & smoking his pipe.
I have bulldozed this family into living largely on plasmon the past five months. The results are good. It has furnished me my chief nutrient for the past 6 months. I value it for two reasons: It relieves me of the necessity of eating meat, & it digests my troublesome rubbish I put into my stomach. I take 6 to 8 teaspoonsful per day (partially) dissolved into cold milk. For ten years I was persecuted with a nightly-recurring indigestion; 2 weeks of plasmon banished it last January & I have had no return of it since. In the hospitals of Germany & London it is the main food of the patients, now. The American Company is under phenomenally stupid management (Dr. Cook's) but no matter, plasmon will make its way.
Thirty-four days ago a friend of mine whose health was poor turned over a new leaf by way of experiment, & since then has strictly confined himself to vegetables, fruit, dry buttered toast, & 2 1/2 ounces of plasmon per day (in milk). A pound of plasmon lasts him a week & costs 62 1/2 cents; that & the rest of his food together bring up his food-expense to nine dollars a month. He has gained 4 pounds in weight & his health is all right, now. You ought to have that American Company under your competent management. We shall sail for home early in the autumn & spend the winter in New York. In the meantime we all unite in warm regards to you & yours." In fine condition.
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