Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

If we glance through the chronological list of Freud's collected works, we find an imposing array of papers published after 1923. It would be unthinkable for us to miss them. Yet we owe them not only to Freud's genius, but also to the determination, skill and ceaseless watchfulness of an oral surgeon, Prof. Dr. Hans Pichler, who died in Vienna on February 3, 1949.

Freud was operated on for cancer of his right upper jaw in the spring of 1923 by another surgeon. Very shortly afterwards he developed a rapidly growing recurrence. Only the calculated risk of ruthlessly radical surgery could warrant any hope. Pichler undertook this operation in October, 1923. It was a full success and until October, 1930 no new pathology developed. But now started a continuous formation of precancerous lesions, each of them requiring new surgery. Not until July, 1936 did one of these lesions show definite signs of malignancy. Altogether, Pichler operated at least 28 times!

During the agonizing uncertainty of the weeks following the occupation of Vienna by the Nazis, Pichler used all his prestige for Freud's protection.

When Freud needed further surgery in London, Pichler readily came to England and performed what proved to be the last operation in September, 1938.

All of us who knew Hans Pichler will never forget him and all of us who owe him so much will remain grateful for what he did.

Max Schur, M.D.
875 Park Ave., N. Y. 21, N. Y.

To the Editor:

I thank you much for sending me the Bulletin of the A. P. A., Vol. 4, No. 3, September 1948. I would be very delighted if I could receive the Bulletin further because we have not yet arrived at a situation where we can pay the subscription rates. The Blockade of Berlin, the impossible situation existing in relationship to transportation, the insecurity of the monetary system, produce a situation where our analytic practice produces