San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-12-17

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roof, nor from the deep embrasures of
its windows, nor from its .scanty fur
niture, but from the peculiar nature
of the many curious objects, large
and small which hid the walls and
filled almost all the available space
on the floor. 1t was clear that every
one of the specimens illustrated some
point in the great question Of life and
death which formed the chief study
of Keyork Arabian latter years; for
by far the greater number Of the
preparations were dead bodies, of
men, or women, of children, of ami
mails, to all of which the old man had
endeavored to impart the appearance
OF life, and in treating some of
which he had attained results
of a startling nature. The Oste-
Ology of man and beast was, indeed,
represented, for huge case, cover
ing one whole wall, was filed to the
top with collection Of many hundred
skulls of all races Of mankind, and
where real specimens were missing,
their place was supplied by admirable
casts of craniums; but this reredos, so
to call it, of bony heads, formed but a
vast, grinning background for the
bodies which stood and sat and lay in
half-raised collins and sarcophagi be-
fore them, in every condition pro-
duced by various known and lost
methods of embalming.
On that evening when the Wander
er fell to the earth before the shadow
of Beatrice, KeyOrk Arabian sat alone
in his charnel house.
A heavy book lay open on the table
by his side, and from time to time he
glanced at a phrase which seemed to
attract him. 1t was always the same
phrase, and two words alone sufficed
to bring him beck to the contempla-
ton Of it. Those two words were
Immortality" and Soul" He began
TO speak aloud to himself, being by
nature fond of speech.
Yes. The soul is immortal. l
an quite willing To grant that. But
1t does not in any way follow that it
is the source OF life, or the seat Of
intelligence. 1t is not a condition of
life, but life is one of its conditions.
Does it leave the body when life is
artifcially prolonged in a state of
unconsciousness-by hypnotism, for
instance? Since its presence depends
directly on life, so far as | know, it
belongs to the body rather than to the
brain. [ once made RABBIT live an
hour without its head. With a man
that experiment would need careful
manipulation-I would like to try
it. Or is it all u ques-
ton of that phantom, Vitality
Take man at the very moment of
death-have everything ready, do
what you will-my artificial heart is
very perfect instrument, mechan-
ically speaking-and how long does
it take to start the artificial circula-
ton through the carotid artery Not
hundredth part so long time as
drowned people often lie before being
brought back, without a pulsation,
without breath. Yet l never sue
ceeded, though l have made the arti-
fetal heart work on a narcotized rab-
bit, and the rabbit died instantly when
/ stopped the machine, which proves
that it was the machine that kept it
alive. Perhaps, il one applied il to a
man just before death, he might live
on indefinitely, grow fat and flourish
SO long as the glass heart worked.
Where would his soul be then? In
the glass heart, which would have
become the seat OF life? Everything,
sensible or absurd which l can put
into words makes the soul seem an
impossibility-and yet there is some
thing which cannot put into words,
which proves the souls existence be-
yond all doubt. l wish 1 could buy
somebody's soul and experiment with
it."
He ceased and sat staring at his
specimens, going over in his memory
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