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Sep 22, 2022

Dr. Fitzjames

see this review
 This blog page is the 4th in a series of blog posts (starting here) concerning science fiction stories about doctors. I began exploring stories about doctors as collected in Groff Conklin's anthology called Great Science Fiction About Doctors, but I've also included any other such stories that I can find, even if they were not known to Conklin. My search has been going far and wide, but I'm restricting myself to older stories that were published before this millennium. 

Fantasy. I get it. Science fiction can be viewed as a sub-specialty within the broader literary domain of fantasy. I've never read "Doctor Rat" by William Kotzwinkle, but that novel won a World Fantasy Award and it is not my mission here to venture too far outside the domain of science fiction in my exploration of stories about doctors. However, I must admit, some blatantly unscientific stories have crept in...

image source
 Title. Included here on this page, below, is a ghost story featuring Dr. Fitzjames. That ghost story was written by a man who I will now only identify as "the good doctor". I must add, this good doctor might have become a medical doctor instead of a biochemist had he not become sicked by the task of dissecting a cat during a biology course. However, I'll begin Part 4 of my adventure with a story that was written by someone who is more famous than "the good doctor", Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle...

Asterothrope telepathy
in the Ekcolir Reality

 Return to the 1800s. It was with much trepidation (and a gloomy expectation of having to wade through a magical fantasy story) that I read "The Great Keinplatz Experiment" by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published around 1885, but often re-published in places such as the October 1936 issue of Weird Tales. While in his late 20s, Doyle studied some medical subjects, so it is no real surprise that his story features a Professor of Physiology. The renowned Alexis von Baumgarten, who teaches at the University of Keinplatz medical school, is fascinated by the idea that by placing someone in a trance, their mind might be free to wander away from their body. 

 Mind Transfer. Professor Keinplatz puts both himself and his young assistant into trances. After an hour, they both come to their senses and return to "normal" consciousness, but their minds have swapped bodies. Hilarity ensues, but eventually they go through the mind swapping process once again and they are returned to their correct bodies.

Life after Death.

 Last AND Least. The last remaining story that was collected in Great Science Fiction About Doctors is an even older tale from the pen of Edgar Allan Poe. "The Facts of M. Valdemar's Case" was first published in December 1845 in The American Review. Like the "Keinplatz Experiment" (above), Poe's story is about Mesmerism and trances. The ailing Valdemar is placed into a trance just before his death. For several months, Valdemar then hangs at the edge of death, his body occasionally "speaking" in an unnatural way, stating that he is dead. Finally, the body abruptly liquefies and only a "detestable putrescence" remains where Valdemar once reposed on his death bed. There are several medical doctors who attend Valdemar at the end of his life, but there is no doctoring for them to do. Poe's story is not science fiction; I'd label it as pseudoscience horror fiction.

An elektron box in the Ekcolir Reality.
 Life After Death. Having mentioned (above) the October 1936 issue of Weird Tales, I feel compelled to mention a story called "Doctor DeBruce" by Earl Leaston Bell. "Doctor DeBruce" was published in the February 1924 issue of Weird Tales and it is another story about life-after-death. 

I can almost picture in my mind a young Jack Vance reading Weird Tales and then later writing lines such as: "Life, death... these are imprecise terms." (see The Palace of Love) Doctor DeBruce spends his last few days among his book collection and we readers of the story are left to ponder the possibility that among the texts in his library was one holding the secret of how to return (at-least briefly) from the dead. 

interior art by Austin Briggs

 The Struggle to Die. Earl Bell also wrote "The Young Old Man" which was published in the September 1929 issue of Amazing Stories. "The Young Old Man" lives more than 5 centuries before finally dying. 

She Turned Me Into a Newt Ghost. You ask: what was the secret of this man's long life? Bell explains: brief treatment by electrical forces emerging from a mysterious elektron box which created blue sparks and even cured the Young Old Man's tuberculosis. Centuries later, the Young Old Man still has in his possession an old book written in Latin; the author, Roger Bacon. I think readers are expected to assume that Bacon was a Hi Tek™ wizard. Finally, tired of life, the Young Old Man uses a powerful poison to put an end to his long life. Sadly, Bell did not tell readers very much about the mysterious life-giving Bacon box from the Middle Ages. 😞

Ghost Lines in the Ekcolir Reality
 Fantasy Stories. I've long been impressed by Isaac Asimov's ability to write stories in so many different genres. I suspect that Asimov did sometimes read Weird Tales when he was in his formative years, but some of the story telling in that magazine apparently left him cold (see this essay). Try to imagine the young Asimov in 1929 reading "Doctor Pichegru's Discovery" by Carl F. Keppler as published in the July 1929 issue of Weird Tales. Doctor Pichegru's discovery was a tricky surgical technique for how to perform a successful brain transplant.

In Part 3 of this series, I discussed "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment" by T. Proctor Hall, a 1929 story in which a futuristic technology is found for treating criminals and curing them of their criminal propensities. The surgical wizard Dr. Pichegru demonstrates his criminal tendencies: as soon as he refines his brain transplantation surgical procedure, he is eager to apply it to the goal of stealing a million dollars worth of jewels.

a paragraph from "Doctor Pichegru's Discovery"
 Cavanaugh Goes Ape. Dr. Pichegru transplants the brain of Cavanaugh, a young colleague, into the body of a gorilla. Dr. Pichegru wants his friend to use his new powerful ape body to sneak into a nearby home and break into a steel safe (see the image to the left). Dr. Pichegru proposes to return Cavanaugh's brain to his original body after they obtain the valuable jewels. What could go Wrong?

source
You will have to read "Doctor Pichegru's Discovery" to discover what happens to the criminally insane Pichegru and Cavanaugh's brain. "Doctor Pichegru's Discovery" is a fantastic (in the sense of "fantasy", not "good") horror story and makes no attempt to explain how it is possible for Pichegru to perform brain transplants. It is fun to imagine how reading such fantasy stories effected Asimov as a young boy. Soon after Asimov began publishing stories, he wrote a ghost story that was initially rejected, but which eventually was published in Weird Tales under the title "Legal Rites".

 Ghost Busters. I mentioned in Part 2 of this series that I'm a sucker for stories about mysterious peoples living secretly among us. I'll place "Legal Rites" in this category (you can read it here). Puzzle: how would young Isaac, a budding scientist, design a ghost story in 1940? 

"James MacCreagh" was Frederik Pohl
 Spoiler. In "Legal Rites", Asimov quickly introduced readers to a "man" named Nicholls. I put "man" in quotes because when Nicholls tells Russell Harley, "we may be of service to each other", readers should start to question the motives of Nicholls and wonder: who what is Nicholls?

Is Nicholls the original ghostbuster?

 

in the Ekcolir Reality
The first story by Asimov that I ever read was The Gods Themselves for which Asimov imagined a kind of parallel universe and way for things to move between our universe and the other universe. Where does Nicholls come from?

 The Spirit Universe. Asimov depicted extra-demensional transfers to-and-from an astral plane. Hank uncontrollably drips extra-dimensional blood on poor Harley.

Figure 1. Do ghosts have legal rights?
Hank died in a gun fight (the story is set in the desert southwest) and he can endlessly drip blood which can mysteriously materialize right out of thin air in our universe and upon falling on the ground, evaporate with a quick, sizzling pop. Nicholls quickly demonstrates his thaumaturgical skills and casts spells from the Ars Magicorum while dealing with the cantankerous Hank who claims ownership of the old house that Harley has inherited. 

An astral entity?
see Alien Obelisk Scene
by Henry1850 availble under
the CC BY-NC 3.0.

 Devil's Dung. Nicholls identifies Hank as a "low-order ghost who can't materialize to any great density". As a chemistry student, Asimov included in the story the idea that stinky asafoetida can repel ghosts. As shown in Figure 1, the dispute between Hank and Harley over ownership of the house ends up in court. Hank calls himself an "astral entity" and he has been dead for more than 75 years, but he is trapped and "stuck" to our universe because of his violent death. While working in the previous century as a prospector, Hank amassed a cache of gold and this wealth allows him to hire a lawyer. 

Dr. Fitzjames. The defense attorney objects to Hank serving as a witness in the case, but there is expert testimony from the eminent Dr. Fitzjames revealing that psychiatric examination of Hank indicates the ghost is a reliable witness. Asimov was a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, so he depicted Hank as owning a book of their plays. Hank wins the case, setting the legal precedent for ghosts to haunt houses. At the end of the story, it is revealed that Nicholls is also an "astral entity" of some sort and he carefully set-up Harley to lose the case.

interior artwork by Frank R. Paul
Having mentioned Dr. Pichegru and his skill at transplanting brains (above), I feel obliged to mention "The Living Test Tube" by Joe Simmons. This is the only story attributed to Simmons by the ISFDB. "The Living Test Tube" was published in the November 1928 issue of Amazing Stories. For "The Living Test Tube", a criminal dies, but his head is kept alive by Dr. Hausen. The dead man's brain is kept functioning just long enough for it to give testimony in a murder case. 

image source
"The Living Test Tube" includes a rather large amount of bogus biological science which decorates a twisted and contrived plot. Still, I have to wonder if "Joe Simmons" was a pen name for some well-known author.

 Related Reading: I've never read the story, but Professor Dowell's Head (1925) featured the evil surgeon Dr. Kern who murders Dowell and keeps alive the professor's head. I'd be interested to know if Alexander Belyaev put any effort in to explaining how a disembodied head might be kept alive. See also: The Brain That Wouldn't Die.

editorial blurb introducing "Doctor Satan"
 Dr. Satan. I began this blog post with mention of Dr. Rat. Here is a fun game to play... start with Dr. and add another word... "Doctor Satan" sounds like what you would expect from Weird Tales and there it was, in the August 1935 issue of Weird Tales. Paul Ernst produced a whole string of Doctor Satan stories. Having read "Doctor Pichegru's Discovery" (see above), I was intrigued by the editorial blurb (see the image to the left) introducing the Doctor Satan series to readers of Weird Tales. I wondered: is this Dr. Satan actually our old friend Dr. Pichegru returned from the grave? Was "Carl F. Keppler" nothing but a pen-name for Ernst? We have to wonder, why is Dr. Satan so devilish?

text from "Doctor Satan"
I'm a sucker for stories about ancient sources of knowledge. As shown in the image to the right, Dr. Satan makes use of both ancient Egyptian knowledge and Hi Tek™ gizmos to do battle with square-jawed Ascott Keane and his cute assistant, Beatrice Dale. 

Dr. Satan in the Ekcolir Reality
In Part 1 of this series I mentioned "Rappaccini's Daughter" in which it is implied that Dr. Rappaccini created a special kind of poisonous plant that was like a sister to Rappaccini's daughter, Beatrice. Paul Ernst told his readers that Dr. Satan was able to modify a type of Australian thorn bush and turn it into a plant that could grow rapidly when rooted in a human brain. This specially designed plant has tiny seeds that can float in the air, enter the nasal passages and take root. Then within two hours the plant has grown large enough to explode the person's head. You will have to read "Doctor Satan" to see how this evil plant is used by Dr. Satan.

I've long been puzzled by a line in Jack Vance's novel The Palace of Love when the excitable Navarth exclaims: "He'll kill us all. He'll drown us in dog vomit. He'll grow trees in our ears." I've wondered: who comes up with these things? I really have to wonder if Vance was influenced by the stories of Ernst.

another "Doctor Satan" cover (1936)
 And Hypnosis, Too. Dr. Satan has many tricks up his red sleeves. He is an expert in the art of hypnosis. Early in the story, in order to provide readers with some background on Doctor Satan and his evil ways, readers are introduced to Dr. Satan's assistant, Monroe. After a conversation between Monroe and Dr. Satan allows readers to learn about the plant that grows in the brains of victims, Monroe is quickly hypnotized and then reduced to ashes by Dr. Satan by means of a highly flammable yellow powder. 

Its a Small World After-all. A month before the start of the story, Keane set out to destroy Dr. Satan. After informing Keane that he can read minds, Dr. Satan has to ask Keane how he learned about Dr. Satan's existence. Keane can also "read minds" and he learned of Dr. Satan from the mind of Monroe.

in the Asimov Reality
 Green Trumps Yellow. The ancient Egyptian knowledge deployed by Dr. Satan is a yellow powder that he used to incinerate Monroe. However, the erudite Keane, recognizing the yellow powder, protects himself with some green paste, another Egyptian invention that counter-acts the yellow powder. Then things get nasty. Keane desperately tries to destroy Dr. Satan using the Force "the pure form of electricity known as the Life Force". Keane fails to kill Satan and breathless readers are told to wait a month for the next thrilling chapter in the Dr. Satan saga.

Before departing from the electric pages of Weird Tales, I'll mention that Paul Ernst published another story called "The Tree of Life" in the September 1930 issue of Weird Tales. That story hints that somewhere in upper Michigan there is a fabulous Tree of Life that can bring dead people back to life. 

in the Ekcolir Reality

Just like Beatrice Dale and Beverly G. Grocke, of Arlington, New Jersey, I must ask: Who is Dr. Satan? Maybe he's a retired botanist or plant geneticist. I confess that when I began reading the stories in Great Science Fiction About Doctors, I hoped that some of the stories would actually be about scientists, not medical doctors. 

A Physicist. One such story that I found is "Doctor Royker's Experiment" by Joseph Whitehill from the September 1960 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. (story here). This is apparently a time travel story although it ends rather abruptly and we readers are left to guess what has just happened to Dr. Royker, a physicist. Dr. Royker is renowned for his work in the field of Time-and-Information circuitry. I have no idea what that means, but I want to believe that it is the foundational science that will make time travel possible.

Figure 2. interior art by Elliott Dold
 A Biologist. Earlier this year I blogged about a story called "The Living Equation" by Nat Schachner which was published in September 1934 issue of Astounding Stories. In that same issue of Astounding was "A Scientist Divides" by Donald Wandrei

In "A Scientist Divides", Dr. Weylith, a biologist, is well-known for having been the first person to photograph a virus. Now he has isolated what he calls homoplasm... which is kind of like protoplasm on steroids.

image source
I'm intrigued by the idea that human bodies might contain within them nanoscopic components as yet unknown to science. In any case, when Dr. Weylith spills the newly-isolated homoplasm on himself, he quickly turns into an amorphous mass which first splits in half and then forms two half-sized copies of Weylith. The fission process continues, creating the gaggle of mini-Weyliths shown in Figure 2. That scene is not the end of the story, but it degenerates into an incoherent ending that reminds me of "Liquid Life" by Ralph Farley. Maybe Farley was influenced by having read "A Scientist Divides". What about the fictional science in these two stories? Sadly, writing in the 1930s, Wandrei and Farley were just about as "scientific" as anyone might be expected in those days when little was known about the molecular basis of life.

 Professor I.V. Frost. Starting in 1934, Wandrei wrote a series of stories about the scientific detective Professor I.V. Frost, Sc.D. (doctor of science).

Figure 3. Editorial blurb appearing right at the end of "A Scientist Divides".


Figure 4. Cover by Les Edwards
 Astounding and Clues Detective Stories were owned by the same company (Street & Smith), so it is not a surprise that the editor of Astounding advised his readers to go out and get a copy of Clues.

In "Frost", when Jean Moray enters the mansion of Professor Frost, her body is x-rayed, revealing her two guns, one in her purse, the other worn on her thigh (see Figure 4). Professor Frost is quick to call that second little gun a "toy". However, Jean is soon blasting away at bad-guys and holding up her end of the first Ivy Frost adventure.

I have to wonder if the young Isaac Asimov was permitted to read Clues Detective Stories. Supposedly, he talked his father into letting him read science fiction magazines because anything with the word "science" in it must be educational.

Figure 5. Educational?
The covers of those old 1930s detective magazines (such as the one in Figure 5) might have attracted readers, but under inspection by suspicious parents, they would not have suggested much in the way of educational science content. Reading "Frost" (you can read it here), I was impressed (not favorably) only by the endless violence.

Violence is the refuge of incompetents. Still, Isaac Asimov did eventually write his own detective stories (such as The Caves of Steel) and his "Cal" is an amusing robot story. A robot named "Cal" tries to learn how to write mystery fiction from his owner. Cal's first written story is about a detective named Cal. In Asimov's detective stories, what little violence there is tends to take place "off stage". I imagine that the young boy, Isaac, was rather disheartened by all of the violence that he saw in the pulp magazines.

Dr. Frost (left). Interior art by H. W. Wesso.
 The Other Dr. Frost. In the February 1938 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories was "The Changer of History" by Alexander Samalman. I'm always on the lookout for stories about time travel. "The Changer of History" really concerns viewing the past by means of a device created by Dr. Frost; that device is something like a telescope but its lens is composed of a marvelous material called lumindust. Also in that issue is an account of the initial stimulus that led Samalman to write "The Changer of History".

interior art for "Medical Note"
"The Changer of History" is not a very good story which is probably to be expected... according to the ISFDB it was the first published work by Samalman. Of more interest is "Medical Note", published by Alexander Samalman in the February 1942 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. I have not been able to learn very much about Alexander Samalman. Apparently, he worked for many years in the publishing industry and occasionally published one of his own stories.

medical humor in the Ekcolir Reality
"Medical Note" is a kind of joke story that might very well have been written to mock other stories such as the previously described "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment". In "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment" there was a magical "ether wave" to cure every illness. 

For "Medical Note", Samalman imagined that music could be used to treat any affliction. Earlier in this series, I mentioned "A Matter of Ethics" by Clifton Dance, in which the Intergalactic Board of Mural Cardiosurgery had a monopoly on use of a life-saving medical treatment that could repair the hearts of heart-attack victims. 

Similarly, in "Medical Note", the Medical Music Trust charges unreasonably high prices for the therapeutic music used to treat patients in hospitals. Read the story to learn the comical means that were used by a daring doctor to defeat the evil Medical Music Trust.

Figure 6. The first paragraph of "The Last Story".
Before I abandon Alexander Samalman, I must mention what the ISFDB identifies as his last published speculative fiction story which was published in 1951. Samalman only lived 52 years and died in 1956. "The Last Story" appeared in the September 1951 issue of Startling Stories. It is another joke story concerning the one writer in the universe who is pleased to receive a rejection slip. The story is set in the year 2160, in an alternate utopian future where money was abolished in the year 2015. 

interior art for "The Last Story"
In the future imagined by Samalman for "The Last Story", fiction is now illegal (see Figure 6). In defiance of the law, Ignatius writes a Western story and shares it with Jonathan Hearsay, an old man who edited the last magazine, Western Whimsies.

In this "utopian" future of 2160, every 4-dimensional super-television set has a camera built-in and the television set in Hearsay's room captures images of the two men reading and enjoying the story. Soon the police arrive to execute the two criminals. Hearsay completes one last task before he dies. He provides Ignatius with a rejection slip for the story. Thrilled to have even had the chance to write one last story, Ignatius dies happy, with the rejection sheet in his hand.

Fig. 7. Long Life
 Vitality Index. I've long been dismayed by science fiction stories about the future in which the entire economic system of the galaxy is built around one rare substance such as the "spice" of Arrakis or kyrt

I also have little interest in the seemingly endless parade of vampire and zombie fantasies that has saturated our modern world, and for that reason alone I tend to avoid much speculative fiction that was written during the past 50 years. "A Bonus for Dr. Hardwick" is one such "modern" vampire story by Brian C. Coad that was published in the February 1974 issue of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact. Yes, it is a vampire story pretending to be a science fiction story.

"A Bonus for Dr. Hardwick" is set in the near future after it has been discovered that the bodies of living creatures contain an Essence of Vitality™. Each person's "Vitality Index" is measured when, as a new employees of Long Life Corporation, they arrive at the sprawling research facility in Long Life City, Nevada (see Figure 7).

Schizzy Frehan checks out Smith's Vitals
 A whole vampiric industry has grown up around the process of taking the Essence of Vitality™ out of some peoples' bodies and giving it to other more deserving people. This is accomplished by the Schlagle Process™.  

Schizzy Frehan, PhD. Schizzy was close to devising a way to synthesize the Essence of Vitality™. However, her work has been halted and her Vitality Index lowered by draining her body of the Essence of Vitality™. Can anything be done to save poor Schizzy? This is where Dr. Smith walks on stage and is quickly smitten 💕 by the cute Schizzy and then he is soon battling the corporate vampires who are content to continue sucking the Essence of Vitality™ out of people as a way to prolong their own lives.

image source

 In Conclusion. This 4 part series of blog posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) documenting my exploration of fiction about doctors has included discussion of more than 50 old stories that were published between 1844 and 1974. My favorite type of fiction is science fiction, but I allowed myself to examine a few stories from other genres (including detective fiction) for this series. I remain tempted to read more adventures of the scientific detective Professor I.V. Frost, Sc.D., but I fear the meager scientific content of the "Ivy" Frost stories is seriously out-weighed by all the silly fantasy violence and use of magic potions from ancient Egypt. On a more positive note...

Figure 8. Dr. Iglowt P. Slakmak (left)
 Arthur Porges. I'm please that some of the stories I've read concern doctors who are not medical doctors (Dr. I. V. Frost is a good example). In Part 2 of this series I discussed "Emergency Operation" and "The Fly", two stories by Arthur Porges. Porges taught mathematics and some of his stories had a distinctive mathematical flavor and an academic setting. I'll end my collection of stories about doctors with three more short stories by Porges...

Figure 9. In the Ekcolir Reality.
 Alien Educator. In the January 1954 issue of Dynamic Science Fiction was "The Unwilling Professor" by Porges. The titular professor is shown in Figure 8, professor Slakmak, an alien visitor to Earth who happens to look like a rabbit. Slakmak crash-lands on a college campus and is force to help some college students with their math homework before another alien arrives and rescues Slakmak. Such stories by Porges have two big advantages: 1) they are very short and 2) they don't take themselves too seriously.

Larsen vs Corman. Two stories published by Porges in 1963 both feature Dr. Larsen and Dr. Corman. In "Controlled Experiment", Porges made mention of Oliver Lodge and Samuel Soal. Corman loves playing tricks on Larsen. Larsen is something of a hot-head and can't help falling for Corman's gags. Larsen is skeptical when Corman claims that he can telepathically communicate with his friend, Merritt.

in the Ekcolir Reality
You will have to read "Controlled Experiment" to learn how Corman is able to seemingly send telepathic messages to Merritt, while Larsen carefully controls the conditions of the experiment. Two hints: 1) it involves a dog and 2) since this was still before 1964, Corman's trickery also involves cigarette smoking. "The Formula" is a sequel to "Controlled Experiment". At a faculty gathering on a warm evening, Corman claims that he can always tell what the outdoors temperature is. When Larsen challenges Corman on this claim, Corman suggests that he is able to telepathically obtain information about the current temperature, saying, "It's a sort of ESP thing with me." As the evening progresses and the outside temperature drops quickly, poor Larsen can't figure out how Dr. Corman is able to accurately report the outside temperature from inside an air-conditioned house.

Please, Doctor, I want to stop. see also
 The End. On the topic of tobacco smoking, there was good old Doc Newell ready to help if you wanted to quit (see image to the right).

 Related Reading: The Brazen Android by William Douglas O'Connor, 1891

Next: 4th dimensional surgery

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Sep 20, 2022

Interstellar Medicine

Control yourself, Doctor...
you have the love bug!
 Going Viral. Below on this blog page is the third of four blog posts in which I comment on a series of old science fiction stories about doctors. I called Part 1 of the series "Love Virus" because I provided a detailed commentary on a story by Winston Marks called "Mate in Two Moves". In that 1954 story, a team of two doctors works to discover the cause of a strange pandemic. People all over Earth are falling in love! Yes, there is a new virus that infects endocrine glands and causes people to fall in love. Here in this series of blog posts, we even get to meet the doctor who was first person to photograph a virus...

alien medicine
Treating Aliens. I called the second post in this series "Moon Doctor" because it contains my comments on a story called "Country Doctor". In that 1953 story by William Morrison, the intrepid Dr. Meltzer must go inside a ginormous alien creature from Jupiter's moon Ganymede in order to treat this ailing patient. Will he make it out alive or will he simply be digested by the alien?

image source
Beyond Sci Fi. I began my exploration of science fiction stories about doctors with an anthology called Great Science Fiction About Doctors, by Groff Conklin. Sadly, some of those collected stories don't really qualify as science fiction and so that opened the door to magical fantasy, detective mysteries and even a dash of horror. However, my interests are fairly constrained and so I will try to stay focused on stories about doctors that include interesting imaginary science and futuristic technologies.

This image was made
using Mystique VI
by emden09 available
under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

 Future Technology. Notice that not all of the stories that I've included in this series of blog posts are about medical doctors. I've also had my eyes open for stray stories about PhDs who get themselves into trouble and can solve their problems by deploying exciting imaginary technology from the future. Only the future? No. Some of the stories that I discuss in this series were published in the 1800s and they deal with pseudoscience topics from out of our past. Sometimes we can even be grateful when ancient Egyptian technology from 5000 years ago enlivens a limping story.

However, next up is a true Sci Fi story with an actual medical doctor from the future named Dr. Calhoun. So, on to Ribbon in the Sky.....

Fig. 1. Cover art by H. R. Van Dongen
 Med Service. The first in a series of futuristic Med Service stories by Murray Leinster was "Ribbon in the Sky" which was published in the June 1957 issue of Astounding Science Fiction with cover art by H. R. Van Dongen. "Ribbon in the Sky" is set in the far future when it is a trivial matter to jump into your interstellar spaceship and go zipping off to visit any of the colonized planets of the galaxy. 🚀

We all have swords spears. The cover art by Dongen (Figure 1) shows a man named "Pat" who lives on a "lost world". Notice the spear! While living cut-off from galactic civilization, the people of this world (let's call it "Planet X") have reverted to a state of ignorance and superstition while still making use of a few Hi Tek™ relics from their past... like that clunky smartphone. 📱 Pat is chatting with his girlfriend while they are both on guard duty. Sadly, Pat is from City 2 and she's from City 3 and "everyone knows" that people from a different city carry diseases that will kill you. 💀☠⽍

Figure 2. Just say "Chee!"
 Future Technology. The futuristic science deployed by Leinster has not aged well. The interstellar spaceships all use some sort of "jump drive" technology. Leinster spends the first several pages of "Ribbon in the Sky" making it excruciatingly clear that each time the jump drive is used, all the spaceship passengers experience space-sickness. In this case, there are only two passengers, Dr. Calhoun and his side-kick Murgatroyd (an alien monkey-like creature), who always says, "Chee!" (see Figures 2 and 5). 

What's a Transistor? Dr. Calhoun is making a routine visit to the planet Merida because... plot. Let's just say that in the future, doctors still make house-calls. Anyhow, the Hi Tek™ navigation system of Calhoun's spaceship was not correctly programmed so he is LOST IN SPACE. You might wonder how such navigation programming is accomplished in the future. Apparently, space ship navigation involves a punch card and someone made an error punching the punch card for Calhoun's trip to Merida.

recording a navigation program for interstellar travel
Planet X. Lucky for Dr. Calhoun, the erroneous navigation program sends him to within a few light-years of a star which immediately shows signs of having been previously colonized. In orbit around this little yellow star is a LOST WORLD that long ago was of interest to a mining company as a source of valuable metals like iron. We all know how rare iron is in the galaxy... right? Anyhow, Dr. Calhoun quickly exposes a few photographic plates, identifies the location of the nearby star and we are on our way to an antibiotic-enabled medical adventure on Planet X.

Figure 3. The page 1 interior art for "Ribbon in the Sky". The huge girders of a landing grid.

Figure 4. Always bring a blaster to a knife fight!
 Figure 3 shows the reason that iron is so important for space travel. That is Dr. Calhoun's interstellar rocket (lower right), dwarfed by a mile high magnetic field generator (Leinster calls this device a "landing grid") that makes it possible for interstellar spacecraft to land on planets without having to carry any fuel.

The Titular Ribbon. The ribbon is visible in the night sky of Planet X as depicted in Figure 1 (above). When humans first arrived at Planet X, it was an ice world, completely covered by snow and glaciers. Then a "space ribbon" was constructed just beyond the orbit of Planet X. 

Figure 5. Murgatroyd and the rabbits.
 Teraforming. This space ribbon is some kind of nanotechnology; a very thin ribbon that reflects sunlight with the goal of heating up Planet X. And it is working! Now Planet X has a thin equatorial Hotlands that is warm enough to sustain life. I love the idea of terraforming worlds to make them more suitable for life, but we are left with the mystery of why a terraforming project was started for Planet X and then abandoned.

Murgatroyd scavenging for nuts in the Hotlands.
When spacecraft no longer visited Planet X, that allowed a few cut-off colonists to be isolated from galactic civilization and they began to sink into... well, let's just say a less technological state of civilization. Leinster suggests that the residents of Planet X started using fossil fuels as an energy source. Maybe Leinster imagined that in the distant past, Planet X was not an ice planet and it had an ecosystem and geological processes that built up fossil fuel reserves that could be used by the human colonists. In any case, Dr. Calhoun and Murgatroyd eventually visit the Hotlands and find that creatures from Earth have been seeded there, including cute rabbits (see Figure 5).

Vance's lost world of Thamber
 Back to the Lovers. Arriving on Planet X, Dr. Calhoun teams up with a man named Hunt. Hunt is Nym's father. Pat is Nym's boyfriend, the dude in Figure 1 (above). Pat and Nym, knowing that their love affair is forbidden, strike out across the glacial wastes in a desperate attempt to reach the Hotlands. Figure 4 depicts the dramatic moment when Calhoun and Hunt catch up to Pat and Nym. Pat (on the right) gallantly pulls out his knife 🗡, but Dr. Calhoun blasts the knife out of Pat's hand with his blaster. Then the four of them continue on to the Hotlands.

I'm glad I read "Ribbon in the Sky" because I now suspect that Jack Vance was influenced by this story. Vance set many of his best stories in a galactic Oikumene of the far future where it was also possible for colonized planets to become "lost worlds".

cover by Josh Kirby
 Fun With Slavery. I've seen it suggested that Murray Leinster's Med Service stories were inspired by a similar story about a traveling doctor of the future called "Ole Doc Methuselah" (1947) by L. Ron Hubbard. Ole Doc Methuselah has an alien side-kick (named "Hippocrates", see the image to the right) who merrily and worshipfully thinks of itself as Doc's slave.

cover art by Frank Kelly Freas
Shortly before Leinster started the Med Service series, he published "Sand Doom" (1955), the first story of his Colonial Survey series. For a reader in this century, it is interesting to contemplate this question: Which is more offensive to modern sensibilities, "Ole Doc Methuselah" or "Sand Doom"? In the case of "Sand Doom", the story quickly introduces Aletha Redfeather, (see the image to the left) who is a member of the Amerind Historical Society. Readers get a running commentary on Aletha from the perspective of senior Colonial Survey officer Bordman.

page 1 interior art for "Sand Doom" by Freas
Yes, we are in the far future when Earthlings are colonizing many exoplanets of the galaxy, but the look and feel of the story continually reminds us of the good old days of European colonialism on Earth. At the start of the story, Bordman is caught up in an emergency situation onboard the spaceship Warlock, but his though bubble contains the fact that Aletha is "unusually lovely" for an Amerind. Bordman is impressed that Aletha is so self-sufficient, because, well, you know, she's a girl. Luckily, Aletha knows how to sew, so she does not get in the way of the all-male crew during the space voyage to the newly colonized planet Xosa II.

Page 10 illustration for "Sand Doom". That's Ralph Redfeather.
 Future Mining. "Sand Doom" could easily be viewed as a prequel to "Ribbon in the Sky", however Xosa II is an inhospitable desert world, not an ice planet. The only reason for colonizing Xosa II is to mine it for metal. It takes ten pages for Leinster to finally get Aletha and Bordman onto the surface of Xosa II (see the image to the left) a world that is like an inferno with "monstrous deserts". Aletha is not daunted because, as she puts it, "My ancestors used to hold tribal dances and make medicine and boast about how many scalps they'd taken and how they did it." While landing on Xosa II, the crewman flying the landing craft curses and readers are told: "The engineer said words it was not appropriate for Aletha to hear."

The dude on the horse sand scooter who comes to meet the landing craft is Aletha's cousin, Ralph. 

The "paleface" Bordman suffers and sweats in the heat of Xosa II.
 Doctor in the house on the planet. Out on the surface of Xosa II, Aletha dresses as shown in the cover illustration while the pale-skinned Bordman wears a protective heat-suit. Ralph and other Amerind colonists were busily building a landing grid on Xosa II when a ginormous sand storm buried it. Without power from the landing grid, Dr. Chuka and his miners cannot supply more metal. It is a bad situation, but Aletha, Ralph, Chuka and Bordman work together to get themselves out of the pickle they are in.

Future Technology. A functioning mile-high landing grid not only allows interstellar spacecraft to land on a planet, it can be used to tap an endless supply of energy from the ionosphere. How? Sadly, Leinster never explains that, but readers are told that in a pinch, a solar mirror can shine reflected sunlight on a mountain side, melt the iron ore and allow an emergency supply of metal beams to be quickly produced. Whew! 😅

in the Ekcolir Reality
 Paleface. Here is a line of dialog from Aletha: "No paleface husband for me!" Dr. Chuka and his miners all have very darkly pigmented skin. Leinster makes a big deal out of the idea that the Amerinds like Ralph have no fear of heights and so they are great at building the mile-high landing grid out of iron beams. 

Similarly, Dr. Chuka's dark-skinned miners are presented as the logical choice to function as laborers in the mines. Sadly, there seem to be few robots in this Hi Tek™ future of galactic civilization (we do hear mention of "robot ships"). 🤖 But that is par for the course... all of the administrative records for Xosa II are kept on paper in loose-leaf notebooks.

No spoiler. And what about Bordman? He figures out a clever way to dig the 80% completed landing grid out of the wind-blown sand that covered it. You'll have to read "Sand Doom" to discover how the team managed to move "hundreds of millions of tons of sand" and save the doomed Xosa colony.

interior art by Virgil Finlay

 Clorophage. Murray Leinster published a story called "Doctor" in the February 1961 issue of Galaxy Magazine. The chlorophage is a virus which readers are told is the "most terrifying thing in the universe". Chlorophage can turn green plants into colorless husks and spaceships like Star Queen all rely on plants to produce oxygen during interstellar voyages. Dr. Nordenfeld is the doctor on the spaceship Star Queen and he is watchful when new passengers come onboard. Chlorophage can also feed on human hemoglobin. But soon after a young passenger (see the image to the right) brings chlorophage onboard, Dr. Nordenfeld discovers another microbe that eats chlorophage. Now chlorophage can be controlled.

Figure 6. Blurb at the start of "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment".

page 1 interior art for
"Doctor O'Glee's Experiment"
 Amazing Mining in 1929. I'm particularly interested in the science fiction stories that were published in 1929 because that was when Isaac Asimov began reading the old Sci Fi pulp magazines. It is fun to read those old stories and imagine how they influenced Asimov's writing. "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment" was written by T. Proctor Hall. According to the ISFDB this was the only Sci Fi story that Hall published. Hall had some scientific training and even went to medical school (apparently, the short-lived National Homeopathic Medical College in Chicago). 

Finding Gold. Depicted in the image to the left is William Brown who wants to use short radio waves to detect mineral deposits. Also at the start of the story is the blurb shown in Figure 6 (above). Readers learn that Brown's metal detector can identify an "ether wave" that is characteristic of gold. Brown teams up with a prospector named Smithkins and they head into the wilds of Colorado to test the Hi Tek™ metal detector. Having no luck in their search for gold, Brown does the obvious thing... he heads for Alaska. Readers can only wonder what any of this prospecting has to do with diseases of the mind... until Dr. O'Glee finally walks on stage...

Doctor O'Glee experiments on Norine.
 Telemedicine. Brown meets Dr. O'Glee who shares Brown's interest in radio waves. Dr. O'Glee has a "sensitive detector" that can monitor electrical activity in the brain. (Related: see the Gernsback thought detector.) O'Glee is studying a girl (Norine) who was born with some developmental defect which prevented her brain cells from maturing normally. Dr. O'Glee is trying to revive Norine's "dormant" brain cells by exposing her to "a properly selected electric wave".

The Carnac Box. For Hall, there is no limit to the wonders of electromagnetic waves. Dr. O'Glee has a magical detector box that can scan a hand-written letter and return an accurate evaluation of that person's personality and health. This device is used to identify a nurse with good character and suitable qualifications who can help care for Norine: Miss Angnes Gem. 💎 However, before the nurse is hired...

by detecting the "8mm wave",
the sleeping Norine is quickly found

...Brown and O'Glee fall into an intense discussion of their wave detectors and they do not notice that Norine has wandered into the forest. But never fear, the two men quickly devise an electronic child detector that leads them to Norine (see the image to the left). 

A Polished Gem. The story is called "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment" (singular), but O'Glee takes time out from treating Norine to expose Miss Gem to another magical "ether wave". Gem has fallen in love with Brown and O'Glee does not want that to disrupt Gem's work as Norine's nurse and his ongoing experiment to stimulate the development of Norine's mind. So, O'Glee casually exposes Gem to a specific "ether wave" that suppresses her feelings of love for Brown.

who emits the murder wave?

 Even More Experiments. Brown conceives the idea of using O'Glee's behavior-altering "ether wave" device to cure criminals of their criminal propensities, so there is a whole series of assorted experiments of different types in the story. Eventually it is discovered that the brains of murderers emit a specific type of "ether wave".

Another specific "ether wave" causes people to speak the truth. Interior art for "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment".

Figure 7. Text from "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment".
 The 1938 Influenza Outbreak. When a bad flu epidemic begins, O'Glee uses a "wave transmitter" to prevent the virus from spreading to new hosts in a nearby town. Is there any problem beyond the power of the electrical waves to correct? As shown in the image above, O'Glee's "wave transmitter" can be used to make criminals confess their crimes.

mountain top thought transmitter
interior art by Frank R. Paul
 The Psychological Age. Dr. O'Glee also used his "wave transmitter" to put an end to a riot. By electrically inducing fear in the rioters, they all run away. Hall's story "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment" reminds me of "The Brain of the Planet", also published in 1929. 

As shown in Figure 7, Hall described Jagadish Chandra Bose as "the greatest of all modern physiologists". According to the ISFDB, Bose published a science fiction story called "Palatak Tuphan" which I think can be translated as "Runaway Cyclone". After reading this story by Bose, you might wonder why the Indian subcontinent still suffers from deadly storms.

interior art for "Dead-End Doctor"
In Part 2 of this series, I mentioned "The Shopdropper" by Alan Nelson, which is an amusing fantasy story about a strange new psychological malady which causes people to leave their belongings in stores. In the February 1956 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction was "Dead-End Doctor" a short story by Robert Bloch, and it is another joke story. Dr. Anson is the last psychiatrist on Earth and he has no patients. In the future, robots do all the boring labor and endocrinologists can cure little human problems like anger when they occasionally crop up. Thus, humans live in a wonderful world without any mental problems. However, without patients, poor Dr. Anson can't pay his rent. Luckily, his girl friend, Sue Porter, comes to the rescue and pays his bills. Sue's father manufactures robots, so the Porter family has plenty of ca$h. 

robotomy
 Cure That Robot. However, the robots are becoming increasingly sophisticated and human-like. Dr. Anson discovers that he can use his medical training to fix robots who malfunction. In particular, he performs a successful "prefrontal robotomy" and is given a job working for daddy Porter.

The eyes have it... the secret of
alien telepathy in the Ekcolir Reality.

 The Dog Cure. I'm a sucker for robot stories like "Dead-End Doctor", but what about our ages old companion, the dog? In Part 1 of this series, I mentioned "The Ananias Gland" by W. Alexander. In the September 1929 issue of Amazing Stories was "The Dog's Sixth Sense", another silly story by W. Alexander. Dr. Wentworth has been performing eye transplants and restoring lost vision to patients. Wentworth discovers that transplanting a dog's eye will confer amazing telepathic abilities on the transplant recipient.

Next: Part 4 of this series on Sci Fi about doctors

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