FICTION
211
but, as his case of rabies was so virulent, he died within thirty-six
hours; and was diagnosed "atypical, in the Negro race."
Thus, a good deal of precious time passed; and two or three
additional victims appeared in the normal course of events; and the
Foundation, grown impatient at last, arranged with officials at
several prison facilities,-amongst them Mt. Horla State
Penitentiary, in New Jersey; and the Providence State Asylum for
the Criminally Insane, in Rhode Island; and Augustine State
Prison, in Maine-whereby live rabies parasites might be injected
directly into the bloodstreams of certain personages, deemed healthy
specimens, of their kind, yet, withal, so far lost to all standards of
human decency, that their loss, to the world, might be termed
negligible.
In this way, the "second phase" of the Foundation's experi–
mental program was launched, with gratifying results.
Herewith, Dr. Fuerst felt obliged to summarize; and to
o'erburden his presentation, with numerous graphs, tables,
statistics, and cumbersome Latinate words, which somewhat
numbed his audience, and dulled the impact of his theory. Yet, the
scientific principle here demonstrated,-as to the more primitive
strength, of the darker races, to withstand physical stress-seemed
incontestable: the more so, that the experiments had been
undertaken with such especial probity, over a period of not less than
eighteen months, and involving, in all, some eleven specimens.
(These were Negro males, betwixt the ages of eighteen and
fifty-seven, ranging in weight from one hundred ten pounds, to
two hundred and seventy-five. Dr. Fuerst, in the published form
of his lecture, included an addendum, which presented exhaustive
data as to the ratio of
weight, age,
and
physical type
to the
number
of hours
the dread disease was successfully withstood: this being,
189.77
.~4:;:;
/113R 9.283
,-proffered here for the layman of scientific
b
)
~
45a
ent.
That the swarthier-complected races of our globe, enjoying a
closer proximity to their animal origins, than the Caucasians, are
the better equipped to withstand such pestilent diseases as rabies,
tetanus, syphilis, typhoid, malaria, tuberculosis, and many another;
that the ordeal of childbirth, for the female, is never so arduous an
experience, as it is for the white woman; that, in all, such primitive
beings respond more instinctively, and with far less demonstrable
physical suffering, to the vicissitudes of life, than their white
