The Venom Business by Michael Crichton writing as John Lange™

Author:Michael Crichton writing as John Lange™ [Crichton, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

EIGHTEEN

THE DUPLICATE

“And this, gentlemen, is our prize possession. This cat you see before you has had its anterior hypothalamic nucleus removed cryogenically. Inhibitory influences on rage are thus eliminated. Our attempts to induce a secondary inhibition by shock treatment have been wholly unsuccessful.”

The psychology students, all down from Cambridge, all doing their Part Threes, gaped as the cat snarled and flung itself at the bars of the cage.

“Observe carefully,” Dr. Black said. “This animal is totally beyond its own control. Further, it cannot be conditioned, even by our strongest stimulus—electroshock. However, there are approaches. Gloves, please.”

His assistant provided a pair of heavy canvas gloves with broad cuffs that extended up his forearm. As Dr. Black pulled on the gloves, he said to the assistant, “We’ll use twenty milligrams this time.”

“Yes, sir.”

The assistant filled a syringe.

“The cat will be injected with meprobamate, a so-called minor tranquilizer. It is the active principle in Miltown and Equanil. Chemically, it is a propanediol derivative, and its mode of action is still wholly unexplained.”

The syringe was passed to him.

“Stand back, please, gentlemen.”

The students backed off as Black opened the door to the cage. He reached in with his gloved hand, and the cat attacked viciously, sinking teeth and claws into the canvas. With his free hand, Black maneuvered the syringe in, and with a swift jab, injected the contents.

The cat gave a scream of pure rage as the needle went in. It continued to scream for several seconds after Black withdrew his hands and closed the cage door. It howled in uncontrolled fury, rolled on the floor, clawed at the bars.

And then it stopped.

Quite suddenly, quite dramatically, it relaxed, the muscles loosening. The cat sat quietly and purred. It yawned, licked its forepaws, and looked placidly at the students.

Dr. Black removed his heavy gloves and opened the door. He reached in with his bare hands and stroked the cat.

“Nice kitty.”

The cat closed its eyes and purred.

“You see, gentlemen? The cat has responded to a chemical. It is reacting in a way which cannot be duplicated by conditioning. It is producing a manner of behavior which it can no longer produce of its own will. In six hours, when the drug wears off, it will revert to a raging beast.”

The students gawked in silence.

“Come along, gentlemen.”

Black was giving them a visitor’s tour, just the highlights, the most dramatic examples and the most unusual cases. He spared them the endless succession of tedious experiments with limited scope and narrow aims.

“Next, I would like to show you the reverse of the coin, so to speak. In one case, a neuroanatomical deficit, with a presumed biochemical deficit, produced a given behavior pattern—that of uncontrolled rage. Now, however, I would like to duplicate the behavior by purely biochemical means.”

He reached into a cage and withdrew a calm, gentle cat. He held it in his arms and stroked the fur soothingly.

“This is Harold,” he said.

Some of the students tittered at the name. Actually, the cat had no name at all, but Black always called it Harold for the tours.

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