“At the end of a few months my patients became modified. If I had endowed their body with a mentality finer than before, the latter ruined the former, and I have seen, amongst others, pigs with a dog’s brain become ill and thin, and die soon. “On the other hand, intellects coarser than their predecessors, allow themselves to be overcome by the corporal part, and the composite animal then becomes stupider and fatter. That is an invariable rule. “Sometimes, also, the imperious flesh refashions the mind according to the instincts of brutal matter. “One of my wolves, my dear nephew, installed cruelty in the brain of a sheep! But this drawback was bound, was it not, in the case of my future clients--men--to reduce itself to slight indifferences of health and character? It was not worth thinking about, and it did not give me any pause. “Not caring to leave Macbeth with Emma, I sent him off to Scotland, and I set out towards America--the land of audacity, of millions, and of the grafted ear--as it seemed to me the best soil to cultivate. “That was two years ago. “The day after my landing, I had thirty-five ruffians at my disposal, who were resolved to part with an impeccable bodily constitution, for the benefit of any thirty-five millionaires I should get to know, teach and convince. “Check! “I began with the most dreadful ones, and the most unhealthy. “Some called me a madman and showed me the door. Others got angry, looking me majestically up and down with displeasure in their eyes, thrusting out very consumptive chests or flabby thoraxes; or they drew themselves to their full height on their twisted legs and expressed astonishment that anybody should think them ugly. “Those who were dying were sure they would get well--surer than that they would not collapse under the ether. “Some showed fear. ‘It was tempting Providence!’ They stood aloof from me as from the Devil, and some of them would have sprinkled me with Holy Water. “It was no use my declaring, in answer to them, that man is modified more completely in the course of his life than they would change under my lancet, and that religious doctrine has traveled some way since 1670, when that Russian was excommunicated, for having had his skull mended with a piece of a dog’s bone. “It was no use. “Many sententiously remarked, ‘One knows what one has got--one does not know what one is getting.’ “Would you believe it! The women nearly saved me! Crowds of them aspired to become men. Fortunately, my black-guards--except one or two--categorically refused to adopt the female sex. “In despair, I dangled before them the attractive prospect of a life prolonged indefinitely, resuming its course at each new incarnation. “‘Life, replied the three-score-years-and-tenners, is already too long, as God has limited it. We desire nothing more than to die.’ “‘But I shall restore to you all your desires, at the same time as your youth.’ “‘Thank you, the fate of desires is to remain ungratified!’