Alexander Belyaev - The Amphibian

“Do you mean to say that at the most Salvator will be charged with violating professional ethics and tried only for operating on a child without obtaining his parents’ consent?”

“Yes and, perhaps, for mutilation inflicted. And that’s far worse. But there’s another angle to this matter from which it might appear in an altogether different aspect. The experts are inclined to believe-very tentatively so far-that a normal mind could never have conceived the mere idea of such monstrous operations on animals, and still less on a human being. They might declare Salvator mentally deranged.”

His thin lips compressed in a line and his eyes fixed on a corner of the table, the bishop sat in silence.

“I did not expect this from you,” he finally broke silence in a low voice.

“I beg your pardon, your Grace?” the prosecutor said, taken aback.

“Even you, limb of the law, seem to be condoning Salvator’s doings, trying to find some justification for his operations.”

“But are they really so bad?”

“And hesitating to\define the corpus delicti. The court of our Holy Catholic Church-the court of ^Heaven-takes a different view of Salvator’s doings. Allow me to come to your aid and offer you advice.”

“I’m listening,” said the abashed official.

The bishop began in a low voice, gradually working it up to a higher pitch, as if pontifying from the pulpit against atheistic science.

“You seem to think that Salvator’s doings are not without some justification. You seem to imply that the human being and the animals he has disfigured now have some advantages they didn’t enjoy before. What does this mean? Does this mean that the Creator did not make man the perfect creature he is? Does this mean that a Professor Salvator is free to meddle with His divine will and introduce adjustments into man?”

The host sat listening to the dignitary of the Church, subdued and surprised: he had not expected to be turned from prosecutor to defendant.

“Have you forgotten what the Holy Bible says in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 26, ‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’ and later, verse 27, ‘So God created man in his own image’? Salvator dares to disfigure this image and likeness and you — even you — find this justifiable! “

“Forgive me, Padre,” was all the prosecutor could utter.

“Didn’t the Lord find His creation perfect,” the bishop went on, warming to his subject, “wanting in nothing? You remember well the articles of the laws of man but you forget the articles of the laws of God. Recall to your mind verse 31 of the same chapter of the Book of Genesis, ‘And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.’ And your Salvator, in his godless vanity, considers that there is room for improvement, that man should be made an amphibian, and you just marvel at it and find justification for it. Isn’t that blasphemy? Isn’t that a sacrilege? Or do our civic laws no longer punish crimes against God? Have you stopped to think what would happen if everybody said after you that man was miscreated by God and should be turned over to Salvator for remaking? What outrageous aberration this would lead to? God found everything that he had made — all his creatures — very good. And Salvator sets to and transplants animals’ heads and skins and creates ungodly monsters, as if mocking the Creator. And you find it difficult to detect a corpus delicti in his doings?”

The bishop stopped. Pleased with the effect his speech was having on the prosecutor, he kept silent for a moment and started off again, first in a low voice, then gradually raising the pitch:

“I’ve said that I am more interested in what will happen to Salvator. But can I be indifferent to what will happen to Ichthyander? Why, this creature hasn’t even a Christian name, for after all Ichthyander is only a combination of the Greek words for man and fish. But even granted that Ichthyander is not to blame, being only a victim, he’s still a creature begotten of a sacrilege. The mere fact of his existence may lead humble ones into temptation, induce them to entertain blasphemous doubts and even cause to waver those not strong in their faith. Ichthyander must go! The best thing for the unfortunate youth would be to be summoned to Heaven as unfit to live,”-here the bishop threw a meaningful glance at his host. “In any case he should be condemned and shut off from all contact. After all he did commit punishable offences. He stole fish from the fishermen, damaged their nets until, you will remember, he had them so scared that they stopped fishing and the town was left without its supplies. The impious Salvator and Ms wicked handiwork are a challenge to God and our Holy Church! And the Church will not rest until they are destroyed! “

The bishop went on with his peroration. The prosecutor sat crestfallen, his gaze fixed on the ground, not daring to stem the torrent of wrathful words.

When finally the bishop stopped the prosecutor rose and approached the dignitary of the Church.

“As a Christian,” he said in a hollow tone of voice, “I’ll bring my sin to my Father confessor for penance. As a law officer I tender you my gratitude for the help you have rendered me. My eyes have been opened to Salvator’s crime. He will be tried and convicted. And neither will the sword of Nemesis miss Ichthyander.”

Though in custody Dr. Salvator had not knuckled under. He was as calm and dominating as ever, speaking to the investigator and experts in the condescending accents of an adult addressing a bunch of children. His active nature could not stand idleness. He did a great deal of writing and performed a few brilliant operations in the prison hospital. Among others he operated on the prison governor’s wife for a malignant tumour and saved her life when she had been given up by all other doctors.

The day of the trial came.

The huge Court was packed, those who had not been able to get inside were overflowing the corridors, the square in front of the Law Courts, looking in at the open windows or climbing up the trees for a better view.

Salvator sat in the prisoner’s dock with the calm and dignified demeanour of a judge. Everybody’s eyes were glued on him. The fact that he was going to conduct his own defence only whipped up the audience’s interest.

Ichthyander would, of course, have come in for his share of popular interest but he was not in Court. With the approach of the trial he had been spending more and more time in his water tank, owing to his poor health and everybody’s morbid staring. Besides, in the Salvator case Ichthyander was only a witness for the prosecution, rather in the nature of material evidence, as the chief prosecutor had put it, and his own case was to come up for trial later and separately. It had been arranged that way to meet the bishop’s wish for a speedy conviction for Salvator. Meanwhile evidence against Ichthyander could be prepared. The prosecutor’s agents were paying visits to the pulqueria La Palmera, cautiously but busily recruiting witnesses for the future trial. However, the bishop kept hinting broadly to the prosecutor that by far the best for the unfortunate youth would be to depart this life-and furnish ample proof that a man’s hand could only spoil what God had made.

Speaking on behalf of the experts’ panel Arturo Stein, Professor of Anatomy at the University and an eminent scientist, gave evidence that was listened to with unabated attention.

“On instruction of the Court,” he began, “we examined the animals and the young man called Ichthyander that had all been operated upon by Professor Salvator. We also examined his small but well-appointed surgery and laboratories. In his work Professor Salvator made extensive use not only of the latest techniques, such as eletric dissection and ultraviolet disinfection, but also of a number of instruments unknown to modem plastic surgery. These apparently were made for him according to his own designs. I do not intend to dwell at any length on Professor Salvator’s experiments on animals. In a nutshell, they consisted of a series of operations as daring in conception as they were brilliant in execution. He transplanted tissues, whole organs and limbs, sewed two animals together, changed monorespiratory animals into duorespiratory and vice versa, transformed females into males and experimented in rejuvenation. In Salvator’s orchards we also found children of different Indian tribes ranging in age from a few months to fourteen years.”