13 December 26

My dear Professor Rutherford:

After having conveyed my official thanks to the Royal Society for electing me as a Foreign Member, I take this occasion to repeat my deeply felt appreciation to the President of the Society.

May I ask you if I am permitted to communicate for the Proceedings of the Royal Society a paper of a very bright young American scholar, Dr Pauling of Pasadena, who is now studying with me? His paper deals with the properties of the atom (mole refraction, diamagnetism, etc) and is based on Schrödinger's methods in quantum mechanics. It is written in English, and is difficult to translate, so that it would be troublesome to publish it in Germany. On the other hand, the paper is rather long, about thirty pages in the format of the Proceedings. Dr Pauling, of course, would be very glad if his paper could be published by the Royal Society. Will you be so good as to let me know if it is customary for Foreign Members to communicate papers of other people for the Proceedings?

I have used the typewriter so as to make my English better understandable for you.

Yours very sincerely,
[Arnold Sommerfeld]