First Do No Harm part 2

Chapter 2

Lectures and Libations

A month into term, the exotic Jennings no longer drew stares - but neither were most of his students or fellows on easy terms with him. His colour, his formality, the subtle impression of of ill health, but most of all the gentle yet terrible genius that looked out of those dark eyes silently forbade any kind of familiarity. Even Cochran, who had taken a shy, dogged liking to the lecturer, had never quite lost the awe and discomfort that their first meeting had inspired.

One sodden afternoon in the operating theatre, when the smell of lamp oil and students close-packed in damp wool obfuscated any impression of cleanliness that might have been made by the fresh whitewash on walls and ceiling, Jennings, neat and sombre, drew a sheet off the patented ventilated copper table. All peered intently at that which lay in state upon the tray - the legs and spine of a large frog. A student turned the crank on the "influence machine," and the metal plates spun creakily. When a charge had built up, Jennings touched the end of a wire to the exposed spinal column, and the pale limbs convulsed. The class laughed.

"A cunning piece of puppetry, no?" he began, when the nervous titters had died down. "And yes, puppetry is all it is - we cannot recall this frog to life with a few volts or, like Shelley's misguided Prometheus, assemble a creation from dead matter. We cannot recreate the spark of life - we can only do all that is within our power to protect it." He brought the wire away and the limbs lay still once more.

The tavern frequented by the students was called the Arrow; it was neither reputable nor particularly disreputable; the chimney smoked, but then, so did most of the patrons; and the drink was tolerably strong without being poisonous. Following Jennings' lecture, a dozen or so of those who had been in attendance were discussing what they had seen. Cochran, who seldom spoke at these gatherings unless a point was raised in argument, stood leaning against a wall, glass in hand. His fellows were in agreement among themselves that the twitching of the frog's legs had been an excellent piece of work.

"That foreign fellow's an odd one, to be sure," said a youth named Farrell, "but he puts on a first-rate exhibit, I'll give him that. It was worth being up to my goddamn omphalos in the pond last month, catching the goddamn frogs, to see-em twitch like that. Damme, but I wish old Burree could make his gross-anatomy lectures so interesting."

"Your cussing lacks invention," Cochran muttered, but none heard him.

"I wish the materials for old Burree's lectures were so easily got as the frogs."

"Or so cheaply."

"You buy them from others?"

"It doesn't exactly raise the tone of our future profession to do the digging ourselves."

"If you leave it to others, how can you be sure of the cause of death?" Everyone turned to stare at Cochran's blunt question.

"Pipe down. You'll put folk off their drink."

"To hell with that. I'm sure Knox was a model of discretion as far as his neighbours were concerned, but he didn't ask enough questions about his own business, and it damned him."