"C M Kornbluth - The Little Black Bag" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

"She still cannot say exactly what happened while she was blindfolded-but X rays confirm her
suspicions. She felt a cold sensation at her ribs on the left side-a cold that seemed to enter inside her
body. Then there was a snapping feeling, and the cold sensation was gone. She heard Dr. Full say in a
matter-offact voice: 'You have an old tubercular scar down there. It isn't doing any particular




harm, but an active person like you needs all the oxygen she can get. Lie down and I'll fix it for you.'
 "Then there was a repetition of the cold sensation, lasting for a longer time. 'Another batch of alveoli and
some more vascular glue,' the Herald's reporter heard Dr. Full say, and the receptionist's crisp response
to the order. Then the strange sensation departed and the eye-bandage was removed. The reporter saw
no scar on her ribs, and yet the doctor assured her: 'That did it. We took out the fibrosis- and a good
fibrosis it was, too; it walled off the infection so you're still alive to tell the tale. Then we planted a few
clumps of alveoli-they're the little gadgets that get the oxygen from the air you breathe into your blood. I
won't monkey with your thyroxin supply. You've got used to being the kind of person you are, and if you
suddenly found yourself easy-going and all the rest of it, chances are you'd only be upset. About the
backache: just check with the county medical society for the name of a good psychologist or psychiatrist.
And look out for quacks; the woods are full of them.'

"The doctor's self-assurance took the reporter's breath away. She asked what the charge would be, and
was told to pay the receptionist fifty dollars. As usual, the reporter delayed paying until she got a receipt
signed by the doctor himself, detailing the services for which it paid. Unlike most the doctor cheerfully
wrote:

'For removal of fibrosis from left lung and restoration of alveoli,' and signed it.

"The reporter's first move when she left the sanitarium was to head for the chest specialist who had
examined her in preparation for this series. A comparison of X rays taken on the day of the 'operation'
and those taken previously would, the Herald's reporter thought, expose Dr. Full as a prince of shyster
M.D. 's and quacks.

"The chest specialist made time on his crowded schedule for the reporter, in whose series he has shown
a lively interest from the planning stage on. He laughed uproariously in his staid Park Avenue examining
room as she described the weird procedure to which she had been subjected. But he did not laugh when
he took a chest X ray of the reporter, developed it, dried it, and compared it with the ones he had taken
earlier. The chest specialist took six more X rays that afternoon, but finally admitted that they all told the
same story. The Herald's reporter has it on his authority that the scar she had eighteen days ago from her
tuberculosis is now gone and has been replaced by healthy lung-tissue. He declares that this is a
happening unparalleled in medical history. He does not go along with the reporter in her firm conviction
that Dr. Full is responsible for the change.

"The Herald's reporter, however, sees no two ways about it. She concludes that Dr. Bayard
Full-whatever his alleged past may have been-is now an unorthodox but highly successful practitioner of
medicine, to whose hands the reporter would trust herself in any emergency.

"Not so is the case of 'Rev.' Annie Dimsworth-a female harpy who, under the guise of 'faith,' preys on
the ignorant and suffering who come to her sordid 'healing parlor' for help and remain to feed 'Rev.'
Annie's bank account, which now totals up to $53,238.64. Tomorrow's article will show, with photostats