DOMIN. (_Crosses to L.C. near desk_) It was in the year 1920 that old Rossum, the great physiologist, who was then quite a young scientist, took himself to the distant island for the purpose of studying the ocean fauna. (_She is amused._) On this occasion he attempted by chemical synthesis to imitate the living matter known as protoplasm until he suddenly discovered a substance which behaved exactly like living matter although its chemical composition was different. That was in the year 1932, exactly four hundred and forty years after the discovery of America. Whew-- HELENA. Do you know that by heart? DOMIN. (_Takes flowers from desk to her_) Yes. You see, physiology is not in my line. Shall I go on? HELENA. (_Smelling flowers_) Yes, please. DOMIN. (_Center_) And then, Miss Glory, Old Rossum wrote the following among his chemical experiments: “Nature has found only one method of organizing living matter. There is, however, another method, more simple, flexible and rapid which has not yet occurred to Nature at all. This second process by which life can be developed was discovered by me today.” Now imagine him, Miss Glory, writing those wonderful words over some colloidal mess that a dog wouldn’t look at. Imagine him sitting over a test tube and thinking how the whole tree of life would grow from him, how all animals would proceed from it, beginning with some sort of a beetle and ending with a _man_. A man of different substance from us. Miss Glory, that was a tremendous moment. (_Gets box of candy from desk and passes it to her._) HELENA. Well-- DOMIN. (_As she speaks his portable PHONE lights up and he answers_) Well--Hello!--Yes--no, I’m in conference. Don’t disturb me. HELENA. Well? DOMIN. (_Smile_) Now, the thing was how to get the life _out_ of the test tubes, and hasten development and form organs, bones and nerves, and so on, and find such substances as catalytics, enzymes, hormones in short--you understand? HELENA. Not much, I’m afraid. DOMIN. Never mind. (_Leans over couch and fixes cushion for her back_) There! You see with the help of his tinctures he could make whatever he wanted. He could have produced a Medusa with the brain of Socrates or a worm fifty yards long-- (_She laughs. He does also; leans closer on couch, then straightens up again_) --but being without a grain of humor, he took into his head to make a vertebrate or perhaps a man. This artificial living _matter_ of his had a raging thirst for life. It didn’t mind being sown or mixed together. That couldn’t be done with natural albumen. And that’s how he set about it. HELENA. About what? DOMIN. About imitating Nature. First of all he tried making an artificial dog. That took him several years and resulted in a sort of stunted calf which _died_ in a few days. I’ll show it to you in the museum. And _then_ old Rossum started on the manufacture of _man_. HELENA. And I’m to divulge this to nobody? DOMIN. To nobody in the world.