Note[1]
A few days ago I traveled from S. to V. The only occupant in the railroad compartment besides myself was a sinister looking man of tall figure, well fed and well dressed, but with a brutal expression of perpetual dissatisfaction printed upon his face. He read or pretended to read a newspaper, and thus we rode on silently for a couple of hours, without interchanging a word. Occasionally, however, he would cast from beneath his bushy eyebrows an inquisitive glance at me, which darted back behind his paper as soon as it found itself observed. At last an exclamation of disgust on his part, caused by some arrangement in the car, which did not quite come up to his ideas of comfort, gave rise to a conversation between us, and I discovered myself to be in the presence of the notorious vivisectionist, Professor N——, of V.
I cannot say that this discovery caused me any shock, it merely made me feel as if I were in the presence of the state executioner. It startled me, that was all; and I determined to embrace the opportunity of taking a look into the soul of a man who was reputed to have no heart and be incapable of compassion for the suffering of any being beside his own person. Our conversation naturally turned upon vivisection, and I expressed my surprise that this practice should be carried on upon such an extensive scale while the practical results obtained thereby were so very insignificant as to be almost nothing. To this the professor replied:
“It is true that very few new discoveries have been made by this method; but the main object in carrying it on is not to make new discoveries, but to demonstrate practically to the students such facts as are already known. Thus the professor of botany knows already to what class this or that plant belongs, nevertheless he causes his students to gather plants, and shows them how to analyze them and determine their classification. In the same way we all know certain things, such as the systolic and diastolic movements of the muscles of the heart, but without vivisection we could not show and prove and demonstrate them to everybody.”
“And what is the use of so much cruelty exercised upon the animal creation,” I asked, “if thereby the students merely obtain confirmation of what they already know?”
“The benefit of seeing it for themselves,” answered the professor. “The animal creation, as you call it,” he continued with a sneer, “has no rights in the presence of man. Man,” he exclaimed, and here he assumed an air of great pride, “is the king of all animals. By means of a long combat with the animal world, lasting through millenniums; during the course of evolution, he has succeeded in fighting his way among the animals to the top of the ladder, and stands there now as the most evolved and exalted of all animal kind, to whom all the other animals must be subservient. Not even the believers in the Bible dispute the right of man to have dominion over all the animals inferior to himself.”
“May not a human animal, then, also gain dominion over all other human beings, and so vivisect men and women for the purpose of seeing for himself that which he already knows?”
“There is nothing to prevent it,” replied the professor, “except the code of ethics adopted by our present civilization. The coming age of science will modify these laws; the criminals and the poor, instead of being uselessly killed or starved to death, will be made to contribute involuntarily to the progress of science.”
A sardonic smile shot over the face of the professor, who took up his paper again, while I fell to meditating upon the future progress of science, and so to sleep; and in my sleep I dreamed a horrible dream.
I saw myself standing in the midst of a large crowd of students in the lecture room of a European university. Upon the opposite side of the wall there was suspended a clock with a movable dial attached to it, upon which was indicated the date, and I saw that it was the 23rd of December, 1952. The students around me were all of a degenerated type, small in stature, narrow-chested, with spindle legs, but with enormously developed heads, long narrow foreheads, big ears and long noses. They were all baldheaded and wore spectacles. An animated discussion was taking place among them. Everybody talked and seemed to fight each other’s opinions, but I did not quite understand their language for it was mixed up with many newly invented scientific terms, adapted to their roundabout way of expressing the most simple things.
Suddenly the clock upon the wall struck ten. Everyone became silent and a]l eyes were directed upon the side door, which presently opened and Professor N— made his appearance, taking his stand near a large mound of earth, which had been erected in the midst of the hall, for what purpose I could not divine. I only saw that some three feet from the ground there was a sheet of glass like a window inserted in the mound.
Then the professor spoke, while all listened with deep attention:
“Gentlemen,” he said, “but fifty years ago scientists doubted the possibility that a woman subjected to premature burial could consciously give birth to a child. Such cases had happened then, as they happen today; but it was supposed that owing to the state of suspended animation parturition took place merely by mechanical action and without any return of the consciousness to the subject. Now, as you know, I have, by repeated experiments, as far as the scarcity of the material to be experimented on permitted it, already demonstrated the fallacy of such a theory, and I am now happy to state that I have succeeded in obtaining a fine specimen, a young pauper, whose life is of no especial benefit to the state, so that you may observe the beautiful phenomenon I have referred to. The contortions caused by the narrowness of the coffin will be especially interesting and suggestive.”
Great applause followed these words of the professor, who now proceeded to explain the construction of his apparatus.
“Here, you see, is a mound of earth, with an excavation in the centre for the reception of the coffin. The coffin is made of wood and is not entirely airtight, so as to prevent immediate suffocation. One side of it is made of glass connected with the window in the mound of earth. The interior of the coffin will be lit up by electric light during the experiment, so that you may observe all that takes place inside. It is moreover provided with telephone wires, so that you may hear the groans and cries of the dying woman. The whole is arranged so that nothing will escape your attention, and you will undoubtedly find the experiment interesting, amusing and instructive.”
Fresh applause followed, and the professor gave orders to the attendants to “have the subject brought in.”
The attendants soon returned, dragging with them a young and beautiful woman, sobbing and struggling most pitifully. It would hardly be proper to describe how they disrobed her in spite of her resistance and forced her into the coffin, whose lid was screwed down and the whole deposited in the artificial grave, which was then packed in with earth. The professor touched an electric button, and caused the interior to be lit up. Owing, however, to some flaw in the connection the woodwork caught fire, and in a few moments the whole lecture room was burning. Oh, how those students, so indifferent to the life of another, struggled for the salvation of their own! They made a wild rush for the door, which was immediately blocked, as they attempted to escape in a body. They fought each other like tigers, and the professor, howling and yelling, knocked down everyone right and left, in mad efforts to gain the door. I was surprised that I felt no heat; but I remained like an indifferent spectator, merely wondering what would be the end of it all. The flames spread, and presently the ceiling came down with a crash—and I awoke. The crash which I had heard had been caused by the slamming of the door of the carriage, for we had arrived at a station where the professor had stepped out to get a drink.”
F.H.
Note:
[1] Progress of Science. A View Into the Future. F.H. [Franz Hartmann, M.D.] Lucifer 13, no. 78 (February 1894), 508-511 {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2024}