Life in a Thousand Worlds Part 14

When we read such a list of remedies we can scarcely believe that they were ever popular, but according to the history of Dore-lyn the time will come when many of our present medicines will be out of date, and only mentioned in the old medical works.

The people of Dore-lyn have suffered in past ages innumerable woes on account of intemperance. Alcohol is unknown to them, but they have had a two-thousand year's battle against three liquids that affect them as opium affects us. Strange to say that these terrible liquids were the bases of many of their medicines just like the anodyne medicines of our present day. Thus in Dore-lyn the old kinds of medicines created many drunkards. Since the dawn of the brighter age, a strict law prevails regarding the use of all narcotics in medicines. Then came gradually into use the many methods of treating disease without medicine, except the materials used to sustain life regularly.

Being interested in these things, I examined more closely into their past medical history, and saw more clearly the present folly of a certain part of our medicinal practice. How we are struggling with alcohol, especially as found in so many of our patent medicines, and how helpless we are in trying to abolish the sale of these medicines by reason of our unbounded liberty! In our world, a man may concoct any alcoholic medicine and sell it without liquor license, for people become verily mad for the bottled stuff. Our nation may some day become wise enough to keep its own hand on the business that is determining the health and happiness of millions of its inhabitants.

But let me cease this digression and get back once more to Dore-lyn.

One of the most noted medical achievements on this world consists in the manner of rendering a person unconscious of pain. The anatomy of a Dore-lynite is, in general, the same as our anatomy. Their bones are arranged a little differently and the sections of the backbone have a quite different formation. When a surgeon of that world wishes to perform an operation and therefore render the patient unconscious, he presses the tough cartilagenous part of a section of the backbone with a screw device fastened to the body of the patient. This simple act renders the spinal cord insensitive, which condition may be maintained for hours without injuring the patient. Of course any point above the screw device is sensitive, and for this reason it is more difficult to render a person unconscious in the parts about the head.

Many ages ago the world of microbes was laid bare, but not before these people were masters of the microscope or an instrument serving the same purposes, although formed on a partly different principle.

These Dore-lynites have brought to light the numerous varieties of parasite broods that cause fermentations and diseases, both infectious and otherwise.

A diseased body is looked upon as being in possession of a certain brood of microbes which are destroyed either by the blood filter or the "Vaccine bath, or injection." (I know no better name by which to call it.) A few diseases are treated by doses of medicines given in a manner similar to the prescription system of our country.

The "Food Treatment" is also very popular in Dore-lyn. This is merely a hygienic selection of foods given to people of declining health, instead of having them swallow ten or twenty dollars' worth of strong medicines.

Abnormal appet.i.tes crave for a cla.s.s of foods injurious to the system.

In Dore-lyn they have discovered a novel method of turning the diseased appet.i.te from its cravings toward the things needed by the system.

In performing operations, the experts of Dore-lyn have reached a marvelous degree of perfection. They have learned to make a false eye so that one can see with it. It took three and one-half thousand years of continual experimenting on this delicate creation before it was p.r.o.nounced satisfactory.

The false eye is not of flesh but one of manufacture. It is placed in sensitive connection with the optic nerve, on which images are thrown by the delicate mechanism of the false eye. The sight thus obtained is almost one-half as distinct as that which is enjoyed by the normal eye.

These medical wizards also make artificial ears which are about as satisfactory as the natural ears. In certain lines of surgery we are equal to these Dore-lynites, but we cannot register with them in the whole category of surgical achievements. They have simply distanced us by five hundred years. That is, I believe that in five hundred years we can reach the fields of glory which they now occupy.

Think of laying bare a human lung and treating it with a special preparation for extreme cases of lung diseases, and also treating it with a "baking" for department cases of a disease similar to pneumonia.

Perhaps the most wonderful cla.s.s of operations is performed on the heart and the brain.

The heart is laid bare under a sheet of thermal rays. Fatty tissues are removed and other obstructions eradicated during the regular heart beats.

The government grants certain privileges of experimenting on her lowest cla.s.s of criminals, and it is well nigh incredible what has been accomplished by cerebrum operations.

Certain murderers of vile propensities have been so changed by an operation on the cerebrum that they have no power of recalling their past life and are incapable of uttering an oath. And what is more strange, they are intent on leading an upright life and being intensely religious withal.

I am compelled to crowd a world of glorious life into a few paragraphs, but I hope that I have given such as will be for our good.

CHAPTER XIV.

A World of Low Life.

When one witnesses an exhibition he must, of necessity, look upon the poorer parts of it. This was my experience in my universal journey, for on some worlds which I visited I found that human civilization was at a low ebb. One of the most notable of this cla.s.s is the world next beyond Dore-lyn.

This sphere is one thousand times as large as ours, and the beastly creatures that inhabit it are four times our size.

The toilers in the deep valleys of Mars are favorably intelligent compared with these specimens of humanity. For convenience, I will call this world Sc.u.m. Its people are so const.i.tuted that their two arms can be used as legs; so it is quite common to see these Sc.u.mites travel over their planet like the more graceful of our quadrupeds. Their walking, however, is princ.i.p.ally after our fas.h.i.+on, and they can change about at pleasure. Either way of travel seems as natural as the other. When they walk on two limbs, the body is erect, presenting a stature of such gigantic proportions as to over-awe a representative of our world.

According to the universal standards of symmetry, these giants have an animal beauty that is anything but handsome, and they also lack those facial expressions of higher intelligence that come only through generations of cultured thinking. Their health is quite perfect and they live to a great age.

These Sc.u.mites have a language singularly their own. It is so totally different from any of our conceptions of speech that I can scarcely find words to describe it.

The medium of conversation is the Notched Rod. It is about twelve feet long with various kinds of notches cut along the two sides. Such a stick is possessed by every Sc.u.mite who expects to hold extended or descriptive conversations. It is usually held by a skin strung around the neck. While one of these persons is talking, two or three of his fingers pa.s.s from notch to notch along the rod. These indentures of the rod represent, in their language, certain kinds of sounds and are used to a.s.sist the vocal organs in expressing the more intricate combinations of ideas. Naturally, the listener watches the fingers more than the mouth.

It is amusing to see a Sc.u.mite busily engaged in delivering a speech to a few of his fellow creatures. It would remind you of a person playing a fife or violin without producing any sound.

The children of Sc.u.m learn this rod language just the same as our children at first learn to speak our language by observation and practice.

The face of a Sc.u.mite does not resemble a human face of our planet. The mouth and jaws are at right angles to ours and this arrangement seems to be just as convenient to these Sc.u.mites as the formation of our mouth is to us. The nose lies above the mouth, but is relatively much higher, its point coming between the two eyes which are situated more toward the sides of the head.

The startling fact about this world is that at one time in its past history fair intelligence reigned on a few parts of the planet. These intelligent sections were working their way upward on the measureless incline of progress and had won some distinctions in their sciences, as well as their religious devotions. These bright spots on the surface of this large orb were surrounded with large black patches of war-like humanity and, between these two extremes, a warfare of subjection or extermination raged without any hope or peace.

The educated Sc.u.mites had a few advantages in methods of war, but with all this they were not able to withstand the vast hordes that swept down upon them. Brute force won the battle and the acc.u.mulated light of four thousand years flickered until it was no more.

It was a fatal day for Sc.u.m when its mad inhabitants blew out the last of the candles that had promised to give them light.

When this sad and blighting victory was accomplished, these uncivilized tribes rejoiced more hilariously than at one time our Indians rejoiced when celebrating their victories in the wild scalp dances.

Thus the dark shadows fell on this huge world. The captured educated cla.s.ses made a heroic effort to continue their cultured manners and religious life, but the prejudice against them and their ways was so great that they were compelled to live in the lower strata or suffer the pain of death. In process of time, the wild woods flourished where once the temples of science and pure religion reared their imposing pillars.

What can we expect of such a race of people who have drifted from the light of civilization for so long a period? As I looked at their customs and their ways, I was reminded of a garden that has run wild. Here and there I could see traces of the once thrifty life now almost choked out by the overpowering crop of weeds.

Gradually the people became worse and worse. Sin played havoc and built carnal fires around which these children of men gathered. Sensuality became the ruling pa.s.sion and, in less than five hundred years of our time, the last family observance had died away and these creatures wallowed in the quagmire of fleshly l.u.s.ts, compared with which the brute life of our world is highly respectable. "Free Love" was rampant and human offspring was cared for by mothers, or at least by such as were willing to a.s.sume the task. No one was supposed to know who was his father.

I saw this sad and sickening spectacle against which my instincts revolted with horror. It is true that if man is left totally unbridled, he sinks to a depth which it would be impossible for any species of the animal creation to reach.

As I continued looking on this low life with its horrors too numerous and too dreadful to mention, my thoughts flew back to the world whence I came, and to America where I was born, and I remembered of some who advocated "Free Love." "Let their arms be withered," I cried, rather than have such a thistle fasten itself in the soil of our social life.

Let the libertine of our world go to the world of Sc.u.m where he belongs, or rise to the dignity of man whose image he bears.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Great Battle between Low Tribes on Sc.u.m.]

Compared with our world, the physical features of Sc.u.m are all fas.h.i.+oned on a much larger scale, and the mountains, rivers and vegetation are five times greater than ours; so are also the many varieties of wild and domestic animals.

The inhabitants of Sc.u.m are divided into many warring tribes, and it is fearful to see the conflicts that take place. During my brief stay I witnessed one of the big battles between two of the stronger tribes. One hundred and fifty thousand men went das.h.i.+ng into an enemy of greater numbers. It was a foot ball melee on a vast scale. Weapons were all of the hand-to-hand type, except the spear wagons which were indeed clumsy weapons of war.

Nothing is known of surrender or a flag of truce, so the conflict raged horribly to a bitter end until eighty thousand bruised victors partic.i.p.ated in the jubilant feast that followed. Over two hundred thousand Sc.u.mites lay dead on the field and along the mountain ridges.

According to past history, another such great battle is not liable to occur for another generation.

The past religion of these giants is not even on a par with idolatry.

There are many saints sleeping in their graves, bright remnants of the time of the old civilization and religion.

Amidst all this present moral wreck of humanity, there are a few indications that point to better times. The n.o.bler people of Sc.u.m are banding together with the avowed purpose of bringing back the light of culture and refinement. But it will require several thousand years of determined effort to climb to the height from whence their ancestors were cruelly and thoughtlessly dragged.