A Case Without Precedent

The chief prosecutor of Buenos Aires had a rare visitor-His Grace the Bishop Juan de Garcilaso, Dean of the Cathedral.

The prosecutor, fat and dapper, with small bleary eyes, short-cut hair and dyed moustache, came out from behind the desk to meet the bishop. With great care the host seated his dear guest in the heavy leather armchair at his desk.

The unlikeness between host and guest was striking. The prosecutor’s red face was fleshy, with thick lips and a big pear-like nose. His stumpy fingers looked not unlike thick sausages, while the buttons on his stomach threatened to be wrenched off any moment by the sheer rise and fall of the imprisoned fat.

Now thinness and paleness were the two characteristic features of the bishop’s face. A thin aquiline nose, a sharp chin and a pair of thin bloodless lips lent him the air of a typical Jesuit. The bishop never looked straight into his interlocutor’s eyes, all the same he kept him under sharp observation. The bishop’s influence was immense and he willingly took time off from his church affairs for the game of politics.

The greetings over, the bishop came straight to the object of his visit. “I should like to know,” he said softly, “in what stage Professor Salvator’s” case is?

“Ah, your Grace,” the prosecutor exclaimed amiably, “you are also interested in this case. It’s indeed extraordinary, this case,” and picking up a fat file and leafing through it he went on, “On Pedro Zurita’s denunciation a search was instituted at Professor Salvator’s. Zurita’s allegation to the effect that Salvator was engaged in unusual operations on animals was fully corroborated. In fact Salvator’s gardens have been a real factory of monster animals. It’s something fantastic! Salvator, for instance – ’’

“I know all about the search from the newspapers,” the bishop put in softly. “What measures have you taken against Salvator? Is he in custody?”

“Yes, he is. Besides we have seized and taken to town-as Exhibit A and witness for the prosecution-a young man called Ichthyander, known also as the ‘sea-devil’. That the notorious ‘sea-devil’, the cause of so much trouble to us, should be an inmate of Salvator’s zoo! It’s amazing! At present a panel of experts, mostly university professors, are conducting an on-the-spot investigation. But Ichthyander has been brought to town, as I said, and housed in the cellar under the Law Courts. And he’s a source of worry, I can tell you. Just imagine, we had to order a big tank for him, for it appears he can’t live without water. And, as a matter of fact, he really was in poor condition. Apparently Salvator had brought about some extraordinary changes in his organism, making him into a kind of amphibian. Our experts are now tackling this question.”

“I’m more interested in Salvator himself,” the bishop said as softly as before. “Under what article of the law is he punishable? And what is your opinion on whether he will be really sentenced?”

“The case of Salvator is extraordinary in that it has no precedent,” said the prosecutor. “Frankly speaking I have not yet decided under which article of the law his crime comes. The easiest thing, of course, would be to charge him with carrying out illegal vivisections and disfiguring this young man…”

There was a suggestion of a frown on the bishop’s brow.

“So you consider that there is no corpus delicti in Salvator’s doings?”

“There must be, but what exactly?” the prosecutor said. “Another statement bearing on the subject was handed to me from an Indian called Baltasar. He claims that Ichthyander’s his son. His proofs are rather weak but still we could perhaps call him as a witness for the prosecution provided the experts find that Ichthyander is really his son.”

“Do you mean to say that at the most Salvator will be charged with violating professional ethics and tried only for operating on a child without obtaining his parents’ consent?”

“Yes and, perhaps, for mutilation inflicted. And that’s far worse. But there’s another angle to this matter from which it might appear in an altogether different aspect. The experts are inclined to believe-very tentatively so far-that a normal mind could never have conceived the mere idea of such monstrous operations on animals, and still less on a human being. They might declare Salvator mentally deranged.”

His thin lips compressed in a line and his eyes fixed on a corner of the table, the bishop sat in silence.

“I did not expect this from you,” he finally broke silence in a low voice.

“I beg your pardon, your Grace?” the prosecutor said, taken aback.

“Even you, limb of the law, seem to be condoning Salvator’s doings, trying to find some justification for his operations.”

“But are they really so bad?”

“And hesitating to define the corpus delicti. The court of our Holy Catholic Church  – the court of Heaven  – takes a different view of Salvator’s doings. Allow me to come to your aid and offer you advice.”

“I’m listening,” said the abashed official.

The bishop began in a low voice, gradually working it up to a higher pitch, as if pontifying from the pulpit against atheistic science.

“You seem to think that Salvator’s doings are not without some justification. You seem to imply that the human being and the animals he has disfigured now have some advantages they didn’t enjoy before. What does this mean? Does this mean that the Creator did not make man the perfect creature he is? Does this mean that a Professor Salvator is free to meddle with His divine will and introduce adjustments into man?”

The host sat listening to the dignitary of the Church, subdued and surprised: he had not expected to be turned from prosecutor to defendant.

“Have you forgotten what the Holy Bible says in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 26, ‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’ and later, verse 27, ‘So God created man in his own image’? Salvator dares to disfigure this image and likeness and you – even you – find this justifiable! “

“Forgive me, Padre,” was all the prosecutor could utter.

“Didn’t the Lord find His creation perfect,” the bishop went on, warming to his subject, “wanting in nothing? You remember well the articles of the laws of man but you forget the articles of the laws of God. Recall to your mind verse 31 of the same chapter of the Book of Genesis, ‘And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.’ And your Salvator, in his godless vanity, considers that there is room for improvement, that man should be made an amphibian, and you just marvel at it and find justification for it. Isn’t that blasphemy? Isn’t that a sacrilege? Or do our civic laws no longer punish crimes against God? Have you stopped to think what would happen if everybody said after you that man was miscreated by God and should be turned over to Salvator for remaking? What outrageous aberration this would lead to? God found everything that he had made – all his creatures – very good. And Salvator sets to and transplants animals’ heads and skins and creates ungodly monsters, as if mocking the Creator. And you find it difficult to detect a corpus delicti in his doings?”

The bishop stopped. Pleased with the effect his speech was having on the prosecutor, he kept silent for a moment and started off again, first in a low voice, then gradually raising the pitch:

“I’ve said that I am more interested in what will happen to Salvator. But can I be indifferent to what will happen to Ichthyander? Why, this creature hasn’t even a Christian name, for after all Ichthyander is only a combination of the Greek words for man and fish. But even granted that Ichthyander is not to blame, being only a victim, he’s still a creature begotten of a sacrilege. The mere fact of his existence may lead humble ones into temptation, induce them to entertain blasphemous doubts and even cause to waver those not strong in their faith. Ichthyander must go! The best thing for the unfortunate youth would be to be summoned to Heaven as unfit to live,”-here the bishop threw a meaningful glance at his host. “In any case he should be condemned and shut off from all contact. After all he did commit punishable offences. He stole fish from the fishermen, damaged their nets until, you will remember, he had them so scared that they stopped fishing and the town was left without its supplies. The impious Salvator and Ms wicked handiwork are a challenge to God and our Holy Church! And the Church will not rest until they are destroyed! “

The bishop went on with his peroration. The prosecutor sat crestfallen, his gaze fixed on the ground, not daring to stem the torrent of wrathful words.

When finally the bishop stopped the prosecutor rose and approached the dignitary of the Church.

“As a Christian,” he said in a hollow tone of voice, “I’ll bring my sin to my Father confessor for penance. As a law officer I tender you my gratitude for the help you have rendered me. My eyes have been opened to Salvator’s crime. He will be tried and convicted. And neither will the sword of Nemesis miss Ichthyander.”

The Madman of Genius

Though in custody Dr. Salvator had not knuckled under. He was as calm and dominating as ever, speaking to the investigator and experts in the condescending accents of an adult addressing a bunch of children. His active nature could not stand idleness. He did a great deal of writing and performed a few brilliant operations in the prison hospital. Among others he operated on the prison governor’s wife for a malignant tumour and saved her life when she had been given up by all other doctors.

The day of the trial came.

The huge Court was packed, those who had not been able to get inside were overflowing the corridors, the square in front of the Law Courts, looking in at the open windows or climbing up the trees for a better view.

Salvator sat in the prisoner’s dock with the calm and dignified demeanour of a judge. Everybody’s eyes were glued on him. The fact that he was going to conduct his own defence only whipped up the audience’s interest.

Ichthyander would, of course, have come in for his share of popular interest but he was not in Court. With the approach of the trial he had been spending more and more time in his water tank, owing to his poor health and everybody’s morbid staring. Besides, in the Salvator case Ichthyander was only a witness for the prosecution, rather in the nature of material evidence, as the chief prosecutor had put it, and his own case was to come up for trial later and separately. It had been arranged that way to meet the bishop’s wish for a speedy conviction for Salvator. Meanwhile evidence against Ichthyander could be prepared. The prosecutor’s agents were paying visits to the pulque-ria La Palmera, cautiously but busily recruiting witnesses for the future trial. However, the bishop kept hinting broadly to the prosecutor that by far the best for the unfortunate youth would be to depart this life-and furnish ample proof that a man’s hand could only spoil what God had made.

Speaking on behalf of the experts’ panel Arturo Stein, Professor of Anatomy at the University and an eminent scientist, gave evidence that was listened to with unabated attention.

“On instruction of the Court,” he began, “we examined the animals and the young man called Ichthyander that had all been operated upon by Professor Salvator. We also examined his small but well-appointed surgery and laboratories. In his work Professor Salvator made extensive use not only of the latest techniques, such as eletric dissection and ultraviolet disinfection, but also of a number of instruments unknown to modem plastic surgery. These apparently were made for him according to his own designs. I do not intend to dwell at any length on Professor Salvator’s experiments on animals. In a nutshell, they consisted of a series of operations as daring in conception as they were brilliant in execution. He transplanted tissues, whole organs and limbs, sewed two animals together, changed monorespiratory animals into duorespiratory and vice versa, transformed females into males and experimented in rejuvenation. In Salvator’s orchards we also found children of different Indian tribes ranging in age from a few months to fourteen years.”

“What was the state you found them in?” asked the prosecutor.

“All the children were in excellent condition. Indeed they looked quite happy. Many of them owed Salvator their very lives. The Indians believed in him and brought him their children from far afield.”

A sigh was heard in the hushed hall.

The prosecutor began to fidget. Now that he had got his cue from the bishop the expert’s warm words jarred upon his ears.

“Are you going to suggest that the operations the accused carried out served any justifiable purpose?” he asked the expert.

But the presiding judge, a stem-faced silver-haired man, fearing lest the expert answer in the alternative, hastened to interpose.

“The Court is not interested in the expert’s personal opinions on scientific matters. Please proceed, Professor. What were your findings as to the young man Ichthyander of the Araucanian tribe?”

“We found that Ms body was covered with manmade scales,” Professor Stein continued, “of some unknown material, easy to bend but hard to pierce. We are still awaiting the results of its analysis. When swimming Ichthyander used a pair of goggles fitted with special flint glass with an index of refraction near two which enabled him to see better underwater. When we removed the scales we detected a round hole about four inches in diameter under each shoulder-blade covered with five thin strips, the whole looking similar to a shark’s gills.”

A muffled exclamation of surprise was heard in the hall.

“Yes,” the expert continued, “surprising as it must seem, Ichthyander possesses both human lungs and a shark’s gills. That is why he can live both on land and in water.”

“An amphibian?” the prosecutor said ironically.

“Yes, in fact a human amphibian.”

“But how could Ichthyander come to have a shark’s gills?” asked the presiding judge.

The expert spread his arms abroad.

“That is a puzzle to which only Professor Salvator holds the answer,” he said. “I shall try, however, to sum up our opinion for you. According to the bioge-netic law of Haeckel the organism in its development is to a great extent an epitome of the form-modifications undergone by the successive ancestors of the species in the course of their historic evolution. So it can be safely said that man’s distant forebears once breathed with their gills.”

The prosecutor half-rose in his seat to protest but was motioned back by the presiding judge.

“Here’s some embryology to support it. By the twentieth day an embryonic skull shows a set of four parallel ridges, the so-called visceral arches. But later the human foetus’s would-be gills undergo a transformation: the first visceral arch develops into the acoustic duct with the ossicles and the Eustachian tube, its lower part turning into the lower jaw; the second arch develops into the hyoid bone; the third into the body and two processes of the thyroid cartilage. This is the normal development and we do not consider that Professor Salvator could have arrested it in the case of Ichthyander. There are on record cases of even adults having an unclosed gill-cleft on the throat directly under the lower jaw, the so-called branchial fistula, but there can be no question of their breathing through them. Had there been, however, any interference with the normal development, the gills would have developed at the expense of the organ of hearing and other functions, making Ichthyander into a monster half-fish. But Ichthyander is a normally developed young man with good hearing, a well-pronounced lower jaw and sound lungs, and besides he has full-grown gills. How Ichthyander’s gills and lungs function, what their interaction is, if any, whether his gills get their water via the mouth and lungs or through the two small orifices we discovered on his body directly above each gill-opening – we do not know. Nor could we answer these questions without an autopsy. This is, I repeat again, a puzzle for the solution of which we have to refer to Professor Salvator. Only Professor Salvator can explain to us the origin of the dog-like jaguars and other such animals as well as of the amphibious monkeys, Ichthyander’s doubles.”

“What is your general conclusion?” asked the presiding judge.

The expert, himself a well-known surgeon, said simply:

“Frankly speaking I can’t make head or tail of it. I can only say that what Professor Salvator did, nobody but a man of genius could do. But it does look as if Professor Salvator on reaching his consummate degree of skill, decided that he could take humans or animals to pieces and put them together in any manner or arrangement he thought best. And though he has been doing this, and with brilliance, nonetheless his daring and scope border on what I’m forced to say looks like insanity.”

At this Salvator gave a little contemptuous smile. He had no idea that the experts had resolved to alleviate his lot by pleading his insanity.

“I do not want to produce the impression that such is our considered opinion,” the speaker said, catching sight of Salvator’s smile, “but we do suggest the accused be submitted to expert medical examination.”

“The Court will consider your insanity plea in due time,” said the presiding judge. “Professor Salvator, do you intend to give the Court any explanations of the questions raised by the experts and the prosecutor?”

“Yes,” Salvator said, “I do, and I also intend to make it my last word.”