The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1902-10-24

| NAL conditions.
| For the last two months l have
been working OH these lines alone,
| varying my temperatures from the ex-
treme cold produced by liquid air to
the intense heat of the compound blow
| pipe, and l have been repaid. A fort
| night ago l discovered how it was that
| | had erred, and since then l have sue
| cecded in everything l have tried. l
| have formed the proteids, the fats and
| the carbohydrates which go to make
| up protoplasm. and with these for my
| solid foundations | have made every
| minute and complicated organ of the
body. l have done more than that
have put those component parts to-
| gethcr. and now behold what l have
| made"
lie lifted n sheet, which was thrown
over IL heap of something on the table,
and | started back with a strange
| mixture of awe and horror, for stretch
ed out on that marble slab lay a naked
body, which, if it had never been Il
man, living and breathing as l lived
and breathed, then l would have sworn
dreamed.
The thoughts which began to come
into my mind probably showed in my
face, for the professor said: You
doubt? You think that have lost my
reason and this thing is some man that
l have killed. Well. do not blame
you. A year ago 1 myself would have
scotfed at the very idea of creating
pIt hnl
shall be convinced, for in the next part
Of the experiment l must have your
help. l will show you how l have
made this man or l will make another
before Your eyes. Then you and l, We
will go further; we will do what no
one but God has ever done before-we
will make that inert mass Il living man."
The horror of the thing began TO
leave me, for l was fascinated by what
he said. and began to feel the same
spirit with which he was inspired.
lie took me into his private labora-
tory, and before my eyes, with only
the contents of q few reagent bottles,
Il blOwpipe and an electric battery, he
made Il mass Of human flesh. I will
not give you the formula, neither will
l tell you in detail how it was done.
GOd forbid that any other man should
see what saw afterward.
"Now all that remains is the final
experiment. and that with your help
propose doing tonight said the pro
fessor. What we have 10 do is as
much of riddle to me as it is to you.
1t is purely and simply an experiment.
l am going to piss through that life
less clay the same current Of electric
ity which if sent through a living man
would produce death. OF course, with
man who had died from the giving
out of some vital function l could not
hope to succeed, but the organs Of this
man which | have made are In a per-
fcctly healthy condition. 1t is my
hope, therefore, that the current which
would destroy Il living man will bring
this thing to life"
We bore that naked body, not n
corpse and yet so terribly like, into the
electric laboratory and laid it on a
slab of slate. Just at the base of its
brain we Scraped Il little bare spot not
larger than il pea, and, as live. drop
of blood ooZed out. On the right wrist
just over the pulse we made another
abrasion, and to these spots we brought
the positive and negative wires from
off the mains of the street current out
side
l held the two bare, uninsulated bits
of copper close to the flesh. Professor
Holbrok switched into circuit 2.0GO
volts of electricity. and then before
our startling eyes that thing which
was only q mass of chemical COM
pounds became man.
4 convulsive twitching brought the
body almost into sitting position;
then the mouth opened. and there burst
forth from the lips Il groan.
l have been in The midst of battles.
and have seen men dying all around
me, torn 10 ribbons by shot and shell,
and | have not tiinchcd; but when l
tore the wires from that writhing,
grooming shape and saw its chest be-
gin TO heave with spasmodic breathing
| tainted.
When came to myself. was lying
half across the slab of slate, and the
room was filed with a sickening
stencil, an odor of burning flesh. |
looked for the writhing form which l
had last seen on the table, but those
wires, with their deadly current. which
l tried to tear away as l tainted, must
have been directed back by Il higher
hand. for there only remained on the
slab charred and cinderlkc mass.
And the man who had made a man
could not explain, for he was crawling
about on the floor counting the nails
in the boards and laughing wildly.