I have been meaning for some days to write to you again about Ramanujan but have been prevented by stress of work. I think it is now time that the question of his temporary return to India and of his future, generally, should be reconsidered.

There is at last, I am profoundly glad to say, a quite definite change for the better. I think we may now hope that he has turned the corner, and is on the road to a real recovery. His temperature has ceased to be irregular, and he has gained nearly a stone in weight. The consensus of medical opinion is that he has been suffering from some obscure and only partially diagonised source of blood poisoning, which has now dried up: and that it is reasonable to expect him to recover his health completely and if all goes well fairly rapidly. He would even now be almost fit to make the journey if accompanied by a careful friend. Moreover, the other reasons which made his continuous stay in England, desirable (his candidature for the Royal Society for a Fellowship) have now ceased to have importance.

At various times we have felt considerable anxiety about his mental state. I do not think there is really anything seriously amiss with it. But the long illness, and spells of comparative solitude have undeniably had an effect and he has been subject to fits of depression and been difficult to manage. This (with a man of his rather nervous temperament and abnormal quickness of mind) is only natural and almost inevitable. But I think that (assuming his physical condition to have been improving as it has lately) a return for a while to his own country would be a very good thing. His tenure of his fellowship is in no way affected. It involves no duties nor any obligations to residence. He has apparently been approached (with a view to return) directly by several friends. It is possible, I think that the suggestion has not been made in the most tactful way possible at any rate it seems to have turned him rather against the idea of going. My own view is that the suggestions would best be made more or less officially and by letter simultaneously to him and to me. His Fellowship, of course, makes him financially independent (when once he gets well enough to live by himself). But if I were assured officially (as I have been unofficially) that it is the intention of Madras to make permanent provision for him, in a way which will leave him free to do research and to visit England from time to time, I would support the proposal for his return, and no doubt he would be willing to go.

There has never been any sign of any diminution in his extraordinary Mathematical talents. He has produced less, naturally during his illness but the quality has been the same.

Possibly you would be kind enough to communicate this letter or the substance of it to Mr. Ramachandra Rao, with whom I have corresponded previously about Ramanujan, and who has taken great interest in his welfare. He is, I believe, a Collector in the Government of Madras, unfortunately I cannot lay my hands on one of his letters or any note of his address, at the moment.

His Fellowship is worth £ 250 a year for 6 years. The first payment does not come till Xmas 1919, but it is possible to anticipate some of it. Until Aug. 1918, i.e. through the first 15 months or so of his illness, his Madras Scholarship, Trinity Exhibition and some 80-90 pounds that was raised for him, enabled him to pay his way in spite of hospital medical expenses. During the last few months, he has been in London, he has seen several specialists and his expenses must have been heavy. On the other hand he has, I fancy, a substantial reserve of his own in the bank -- his tastes are frugal and he saved a good deal of money during his first few years here.

He will return to India with a scientific standing and reputation such as no Indian has enjoyed before, and I am confident that India will regard him as the treasure he is. His natural simplicity and modesty has never been affected in the least by success - indeed all that is wanted is to get him to realize that he really is a success.