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...
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...
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.
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Life after Death.
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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.
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.
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. 😞
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.
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| 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?
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?
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?
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.
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Figure 1. Do ghosts have legal rights?
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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.
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.
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.
"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.
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editorial blurb introducing "Doctor Satan"
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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?
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.
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.
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another "Doctor Satan" cover (1936)
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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| Figure 3. Editorial blurb appearing right at the end of "A Scientist Divides". |
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.
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| 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.
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".
"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 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.
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Figure 6. The first paragraph of "The Last Story".
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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.
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| 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.
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Fig. 7. Long Life
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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).
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Schizzy Frehan checks out Smith's Vitals
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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.
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...
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Figure 8. Dr. Iglowt P. Slakmak (left)
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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...
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.
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.
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Please, Doctor, I want to stop. see also
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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
