Life, 1912-03-21 · page 31 of 52
Life — March 21, 1912 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is the opening of a science fiction story satirizing early 20th-century medical optimism and technological faith. A doctor persuades patient Gillson to replace his failing heart with a mechanical glass one, describing it with absurd confidence—claiming it's "thoroughly antiseptic," has "ball bearing" valves, and won't wear out for a thousand years. The satire targets the era's belief that modern medicine could mechanically "fix" human bodies like machines. The glass heart itself—transparent, fragile, pointlike—is comedic: the doctor describes it as resembling "a very large glass eye," highlighting the absurdity of replacing an organ with something so obviously unsuitable. The story's subtitle "(According to the Doctors)" suggests doctors' inflated claims about what surgery could achieve. The narrative presents their certainty as darkly comic, promising instant transformation despite the obvious risks of replacing a vital organ mid-heartbeat.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A T™ALY HIS BIRTHPLACE THE NEW FAMILY a The Man With the Glass Heart (According to the Doctors) “QTEP right this way,” said the doctor. Gillson felt an odd sense of strangeness as he obeyed. One has such moments occasionally when one sees a comet swinging across the sky, or is snubbed by some pretty girl and realizes one’s nothingness. Yet the wonder of the whole affair was upon him. “Are you sure,” he said, “that you know what you are about?” “ Perfectly,” replied the doctor, with an air of absolute self-possession. “ You see, that heart of yours is played out. Some fine day when you are walking along—or pos- sibly running upstairs—you would drop as if struck by lightning. All I am going to do is to replace this worn- out engine with another. Would you like to examine it?” He opened a drawer and pulled out what looked to Gillson like a very large glass eye. At first it didn’t seem to resemble the conventional heart at all, but as he took in its lines he saw that it was pointed at one end and had certain large openings at the other, like two eyes. “How do you put it in?” he asked. “Quite simply. Just make an incision, take out the other, and in a jiffy have this in its place. Of course, there is no time to lose. Has to be done between beats, so to speak. You sce, we fit the ventricles and auricles together by means of a patent cement—it’s all over in a couple of seconds.” “Isn't it rather brittle?” “It's hard, of course, but well protected. And the beauty of glass is that it is thoroughly antiseptic. Noth- ing can get into it. You sce these valves are on ball bear- ings—why, they are made of pressed steel and won't wear out in a thousand years. You'll be delighted when it gets to working. Sit right down here, please!” It was six weeks later when Gillson woke up. The (Continued on page 605) comicbooks.com