"Well," he said, "yes. Do you remember the message brought by
special messenger from Windsor yesterday evening?"
Monsignor shook his head.
"That'll do," said the doctor. "Don't attempt to force yourself."
He rose from his chair, fetched his bag and opened it. Out of it
he took an instrument rather resembling a small camera, but with
a bundle of minute wires of some very pliable material, each
ending in a tiny disc.
"Do you know what this is, Monsignor?" asked the doctor, busying
himself with the wires.
"I have no idea."
"Well, well. . . . Now, Monsignor, kindly loosen your waistcoat,
so that I can get at your breast and back."
"Is it a stethoscope?"
"Something like it," smiled the doctor. "But how did you know
that name? Never mind. Now then, please."
He placed the camera affair on the corner of the table near the
arm-chair; and then, very rapidly, began to affix the discs--it
seemed by some process of air-exhaustion--all over the head,
breast, and back of the amazed man. No sensation followed this at
all, except the very faint feeling of skin-contraction at each
point of contact.
"May I have that blind down, your Eminence? . . . Ah! that's
better. Now then."
He bent closely over the square box on the table, and seemed to
peer at something inside. The others kept silence.
"Well?" asked the Cardinal at last.
"Perfectly satisfactory, your Eminence. There is a very faint
discoloration, but no more than is usual in a man of Monsignor's
temperament at any excitement. There is absolutely nothing wrong,
and--Monsignor," he continued, looking straight at the
wire-bedecked invalid, "not the very faintest indication of
anything even approaching insanity or imbecility."
The man who had lost his memory drew a swift breath.
"May I see, doctor?" asked the Cardinal suavely.
"Certainly, your Eminence; and Monsignor can look
himself, if he likes."
When the other two had looked, the sick man himself was given the box.
"(Carefully with that wire, please.) There!" said the doctor.
"Look down there."
In the centre of the box, shielded by a little plate of glass,
there appeared a small semi-luminous globe. This globe seemed
tinted with slightly wavering colours, in which a greyish blue
predominated; but, almost like a pulse, there moved across it
from time to time a very pale red tint, suffusing it, and then
dying away again.
"What is it?" asked the man in the chair hoarsely, lifting his head.
"That, my dear Monsignor," explained the doctor carefully, "is a
reflection of your physical condition. It is an exceedingly
simple, though of course very delicate instrument. The method
was discovered---"
"Is it anything to do with magnetism?"
"They used to call it that, I think. It's got several names now.
All mental disturbance has, of course, a physical side to it, and
that is how we are able to record it physically. It was
discovered by a monk, of course."
"But . . . but it's marvellous."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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