Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 52 — page 114: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION pering” can produce for people. One such account was recently published‘ in which was described how one of the best neurosurgeons in the land, Dr. Murray A. Falconer, had turned a miserable misfit into a useful citizen by “tam- pering” with his temporal lobe. The patient had the unfortunate characteristic of going into a kind of trance at the sight of a safety pin, from which he derived much tem- porary pleasure. These sessions invariably led to epileptic fits. The man used to hide himself away while he indulged this caprice, because he knew that it was an odd habit. It was not until his wife discovered the queer trait and gradually came near her wits’ end trying to handle it that the patient was brought to hospital. At this point his marriage was almost on the rocks, he was in danger of losing his job, and he was just about as miserable as a man on the road to insanity can be. And he had a fit about every seven or eight days. After examination, a piece of the temporal lobe in his brain was removed (examina- tion had shown that this area was not normal) and the patient carefully nursed back to health. Over a year after the operation, the patient was again examined and found to be a normal person. His marriage was now perfectly satisfactory, his work was secure, and he was happy and confident of the future. He no longer went peculiar with safety pins, and he no longer had epileptic fits. A little more of this sort of “tampering” might convince even Professor Adrian that science fiction is merely the avant-garde of unprejudiced science. 1 Donovan, B. T. and Harris G. W., Nature, 174, 503 (1954). .2 Rugh, Robert, Nucleonics, 12, 28 (1954). 3 Foote, R. S. and Koch, H. W., Rey. Sci. Instrum., 25, 746 (1954). 4 Falconer, M.A., ef al., Lancet, ii, 626 (1954). 113 conmicloooks.com