Twelve Days of Terror by M. G. D. Fernicola

Author:M. G. D. Fernicola [Fernicola;M.D., Richard G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2016-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Science Stalks the Phantom

The frustrating and demoralizing climate of the summer of 1916 was evident when noted scientists assembled in New York to confer on possible solutions to halt the infantile paralysis plague. At the same time, the convention hall in Asbury Park saw governmental officials assembling to discuss a solution to the New Jersey coast shark plague. Science and the logic-driven occupants of public office unanimously agreed that these were new problems that must be faced head-on. However, it was not particularly scientific for people like Governor Fielder (he called the crisis “evil”) to add a demonic label to the shark(s), and it was not very helpful for political cartoonists to paint the shark as everything that was ugly or corrupt about society. One newspaper caricature even showed a beleaguered male swimmer being approached by five sharks each of which represented a vice: whiskey, wasted opportunities, gambling, late hours, procrastination.

The presence of Dr. John T. Nichols at the creek side in Matawan on Friday, July 14, held several points of very profound and even ironic significance. This was a man who, along with two other very respected colleagues, had stated only months before that sharks do not attack living human beings in an unprovoked fashion. His expressed interest and the interest of his American Museum revealed that they were now forced to rethink their original stance. Although Dr. Robert Murphy was an established zoologist and had a keen interest in the New Jersey shark problem, his strength was in the field of ornithology. Dr. Frederic Lucas’s forte revolved around the subjects of fossils, taxidermy, and museum displays. Since Nichols was the ichthyologist, he was the obvious choice to venture to Matawan. Nichols, Lucas, and Murphy could have been jointly curious to determine if some new mutation of the shark, or some strange aggressive shark-like species, could be present on the New Jersey coast and now opportunely confined in the Matawan Creek. At the least, with all of the fictional and sensationalized news reporting, Nichols wanted to make sure that persons by the name of Lester Stillwell and Stanley Fisher even existed, not to mention confirm that they were attacked by a shark. I like to think of Nichols’s trip to Matawan as the move of a true scientist. I believe that Nichols began to reevaluate a previous theory, basing his reappraisal on new data that was becoming available.

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