The Blue Germ

consulting physician occupied most of my time. In the greater world beyond my consulting-room door life went on un

perhaps some day, not so very far remote, all the endless cycle of disease and misery would cease, and a new dawn of hope burst with blinding radiance upon weary hum

study fire, my servant entered and an

ing he was probably a late patien

fessor Sarakoff hi

y of welcome and

dn't you let me know yo

me with a myste

of being heard, "I came on a sudden impulse.

ng a square box in his hands. He laid it on

," he whispered. He opened the box and drew o

the table and looke

s it?"

p the m

number of dark objects. At first I thought they were some kin

ies!" I e

to the door. He opened it suddenly and

nd gave one of the glass panels a tap with his finger. The butterflies stirred and some spread th

red a

nknown in England

ey are peculi

you doing with

inued t

ing remarkable about

ion, "I can't say I do ... save that

Sarakoffii." He tapped the glass again and watched the insects move. "But

fect

that they are in

be in excell

of decay-o

on

nod

they should be, according to natur

with dawning compreh

ey should have

o they live

utside their life is not more than thir

ith difficulty, getting in each other's way, sprawling and colliding, apparently without aim or purpose. At that spectacle my thoughts might we

hear they had existed perhaps a da

arvelling. A year old! I bent down, gazing at the turbulent rest

e lived a whole year?" I ex

nod

t is a m

man living twenty-five thousand ye

n't sug

obacco pouch. Absurd, outrageous ideas crowded to my mind.

hey'll live much l

until he had

years, would you be inclined to tell me he would no

ind a satisfa

glimpse, as it were, of strange figures, moving about in a colourless background, with calm gestures, slow speeches, silences perhaps a year in length. The familiar outline of London crumbled suddenly away, the blotches of shadow and the coloured shafts of light striking between the gaps i

wonderful butterflies, and for many months I heard nothing fr

rtals will realize the dream that has haunted us since the beginning of time. We will attain immo

Sarakoff,"