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February 25, 1895
Dear Wilhelm,
Must immediately send a letter to you. The report on labor pains has appeared in the Wiener allgemeine Zeitung,1 is factual and reasonable, and deserves a correction only insofar as he2 purports to have been in direct contact with you. Don't be too harsh, please; the public is really entitled to [hear] new things of this sort; and you do not need the cloak of virtue.
Cordially your
S.
This article appeared on February 26(!), 1895, on p. 4. The half-column report called “Eine neue medizinische Entdeckung” begins, “In the gynecological clinic of Professor Chrobak, the Berlin physician Dr. Wilhelm Fliess has recently been conducting experiments to eliminate, or at least diminish, labor pain in birth by the use of cocaine on the lower turbinate bone and the so-called tubercula septi of the nose.” The phrase Freud is referring to reads, “As Dr. Fliess himself tells us, he has not yet been able to form a conclusive opinion about the significance of the discovery he has made.” Curiously, the article continues with, “Dr. Fliess, by the way, is returning to Berlin today,” although this is perhaps a reference to when the article was written as opposed to when it appeared.
That is, the reporter.