Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1909 — A PHRENOLOGICAL CASE. [ARTICLE]

A PHRENOLOGICAL CASE.

, “Professor Fulcrum, I believe.** "At your service, Bir." “I understand that you have been for a long while a close Student of the brain and have made some remarkable discoveries.” “I have Simply been building on the scant knowledge held by our grandparents. It has been reserved for us fin de siecle people to point out the exact spot on the brain that directs any special condition.” “Your modesty is wasted on me, professor. It is you who have made this last discovery. How did you do it?” “Vivisection. Our ancestors found difficulty in getting consent to experiment on animals. Now, with some 400,000,000 of people, life is so cheap that we can operate on human beings. I am indebted to malefactors for my discoveries. And malefactors are Indebted to me as well, for I now can make an honest man of a rogue.” “By what means?” “Trepanning. For instance, I know the exact spot in the brain that produces kleptomania. I cut away a bit of the skull and find an abnormal development of the brain directly under it. This I cut away, and the patient has no more desire to steal.” "Can you turn hate to love, or vice versa?” “No, but I can destroy either the one or the other.” “Now we are getting down to the object of my visit. My son is in love with a girl whom I do not wish him to marry. Can you destroy his love for heT?” "Yes.” “Recent development in microscopy has shown that each sensation has a minute corrugation on the brain. On a certain point in your son’s brain will be found a little protuberance composed of these minute corrugations. If this protuberance is removed the love is killed.” “Forever?” “Not necessarily. Another operation is required to prevent its return. I must cut away a certain tiny particle in the bump of memory for that particular girl.” “Very well, professor. I will bring my son to you at once. He is waiting without.”

Professor Fulcrum consented only on the payment of an immense fee and guaranty of indemnity in case the son claimed damages. Then the young man was shown into a room, where an anasthetic gas was turned on. When he was unconscious he was placed on a table and the operation performed. On coming to his senses he found his head bandaged and was told that a burglar had shot him, making two bullet holes in the brain. He was to be kept quiet till the wounds healed. “Who the dickens is this Amanda Brown who is sending me flowers?” he asked one morning during convalescence. His father, who heard the remark and hoped that he would marry the donor, was delighted. He rushed off to Prof. Fulcrum to tell him that the operation had been eminently successful. “Now, professor,” he said, “there is a girl I wish my son to marry. Can you make him love her?” "Certainly not.” “Are you sure? She loves him, and she is immensely rich.” “I am perfectly sure. I cannot create. I can only destroy.” Jennie Carr, who had been removed from Walter Higgins’ memory, insisted on seeing him as soon as it was safe for him to undergo the excitement of the meeting. Mr. Higgins, senior, curious to know if his son would remember her on seeing her, granted permission at once. “Oh, Walter,” she said plaintively, “I’m so Sorry!” “Let me see,” said Walter, looking at her scrutinizingly. “So many people have called to see me. Where have I met you?” This was enough for Mr. Higgins, senior. He took the girl away and told her that the shooting had affected his son’s memory. One day six months later Mr. Higgins rushed into Prof. Fulcrum’s workroom in a rage. “You have swindled m§_!” he cried. “How so?” “My son has married the girl after all.” . ’ “Well?” ‘'You said you could guard against his love for her returning by destroying his memory of her. His love has returned. He has married her." “It has not returned. If he loves her it is a new love, not the old one." “It is certainly not a new one, for my son has had nothing to do with her since you operated on him.”“I don’t believe it. My knowledge is based on long experiment and Is exact. Find out what has taken place between the couple since your son’s recovery and you will prove my position.” Mr. Higgins departed and in a few days sent Prof. Fulcrum the following confession signed by his son’s wife: “I always noticed that the Higgins family were opposed to me and noticed that they were especially pleased when I was blotted from Walter’s memory. I had won him once despite their''opposition and resolved to do so again, keeping my effort a secret from them. I began at tl beginning In my own way pledging him not to let him family know of his meetings with me L then when I had won him I married him clandestinely before, they could, Interfere."— OMgr