“Apropos of this, nephew, you very nearly put on the features of Professor Lerne! Yes, she adored you with such a fine ardor, nephew, that I thought of disguising my appearance by assuming with your features, in order to be loved in your place.... “That would have been the very best revenge, and very piquant, but I have still need, for some time, of my antique and awkward carcass. Later on we shall see about getting rid of this old trumpery frame. Is not your captivating appearance always at my disposal?” At those sarcastic words, my weeping was redoubled. My uncle went on, affecting consideration for me. “Ah! I am abusing your courage, my dear patient. Have a rest. The satisfaction of your curiosity will give you, I hope, a refreshing sleep. “Ah! I was forgetting! Do not be astonished if the world appears to you other than it was.... Amongst other novelties, things must be seen by you as flat as in a photograph. That is because you look at things only with one eye at a time, so that one might say--using the terms jocularly, that many animals are only double one-eyed things. Their sight is not stereoscopic. Other eyes--other phenomena. “New ear-drums, other sounds, and so on! “Amongst men, themselves, each one has his manner of appreciating things. Habit teaches us, for example, that we must call a certain color red, but a man who calls it red receives from it a green impression--that is a common occurrence, and another, an impression of olive or dark blue. “Well, good-night!” No, my curiosity was not satisfied, but I realized that that was so without being able to fix the points which my uncle had not made clear, for my awful experience overwhelmed me with anguish, and the Circeean operation left me impregnated with ether, whose penetrating vapors upset in me the man’s understanding and the bull’s stomach. CHAPTER XI IN THE PADDOCK During the eight days of my convalescence in the laboratory, nursed and kept quiet, and treated with drugs, I underwent the alternation of great sorrows; fits of despair each followed by a collapse. Every time I slept I thought I had dreamt this calamity. Now, it must be observed that the sensations at my awakening confirmed me in this error, which was, however, immediately dissipated. It is well known that those who have had a limb amputated, suffer a great deal, and refer their suffering to the extreme periphery of the severed nerves, that is to say, to the limb which they have lost, and which they think they still possess. The severed limb, or arm, hurts them. If one reflects that I had had my whole body cut off, one will understand that I suffered in all its parts--in my distant hands, in my human feet; and that this pain seemed proof positive of the possession of that of which I had been deprived. This phenomenon grew gradually less distinct, and finally disappeared.