Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 44 — page 78: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE STAR VIRUS was too late. Because Venus, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter and Mercury are in certain posi- tions relative to the earth, a child might die or be distorted in body for the rest of its life. And let me emphasise that poliomyelitis is one of the most baffling of the virus diseases. “What do we know of the polio virus which has killed or maimed people for thous- ands of years, which, every year, strikes at hundreds of people in Australia? We know almost nothing about it. What do we know of any virus? Not very much more. Some viruses can be separated and crystallised. When a virus solution is evaporated the crystal may be in the form of twelve rods lying side by side and the virus is harmless. Then we put the crystal in solution again and the twelve rods will join end to end; the virus is then extremely danger- ous. Of all this we know little except that the joining of the rods is influenced by some form of alternating current. ““Now we take our long rod and subject it to sound vibrations of extremely high frequency. First it breaks in half, then each half into two 77 quarters and finally each quar- ter into two eighth sections. Why not twelve sections? Because of natural acoustic laws you say. So we try har- monic sound vibrations, as if the rod were a violin string, but the crystal still separates into eight pieces instead of twelve. Then we dissolve the eight pieces in solution and once again they join end to end to form a long rod, but now we find that the virus is not nearly as virulent as it was before. ““Why? Look up any infor- mation on viruses and it will tell you that these phenomena are attributed to the ‘influence of outside sources.’ What out- side forces ? Magnetism? That is not an alternating current. Sunlight possibly? Yet I have taken a microscopic fungus spore, allowed it to grow in- side a lead box and have later isolated a virus from the fungus. “T tell you it is significant. The tobacco plant suffers from yellow mosaic virus. The weight of that virus is, by comparison, eighty-two thousand times heavier than lead. It is, in fact, the heaviest molecule known. All viruses _are enormously heavy—and all exhibit properties and ; ; Ccomicbooks.conn