The Parasite

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Short story, first published in 1894.According to Wikipedia: "Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer who is most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seltzer Books
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781455445875

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859. Before starting his writing career, Doyle attended medical school, where he met the professor who would later inspire his most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet was Doyle's first novel; he would go on to write more than sixty stories featuring Sherlock Holmes. He died in England in 1930.

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THE PARASITE, A STORY BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Published by Seltzer Books

established in 1974 as B&R Samizdat Express, now offering over 14,000  books

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Arthur Conan Doyle Novels (other than Sherlock and Challenger) available from Seltzer Books:

The Adventures of Gerard

Beyond the City

The Captain of the Polestar and Other Stories

A Desert Drama, Tragedy of the Korosko

The Doings of Raffles Haw

A Duet With Occasional Chorus

The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard

The Firm of Girdlestone

The Green Flag

The Last Galley. Impressions and Tales

The Mystery of Cloomber

The Parasite (a short story)

The Stark Munro Letters

Tales of Terror and Mystery

Through the Magic Door

1894

I

March 24.  The spring is fairly with us now.  Outside my laboratory window the great chestnut-tree is all covered with the big, glutinous, gummy buds, some of which have already begun to break into little green shuttlecocks.  As you walk down the lanes you are conscious of the rich, silent forces of nature working all around you.  The wet earth smells fruitful and luscious.  Green shoots are peeping out everywhere.  The twigs are stiff with their sap; and the moist, heavy English air is laden with a faintly resinous perfume.  Buds in the hedges, lambs beneath them-- everywhere the work of reproduction going forward!

I can see it without, and I can feel it within.  We also have our spring when the little arterioles dilate, the lymph flows in a brisker stream, the glands work harder, winnowing and straining.  Every year nature readjusts the whole machine.  I can feel the ferment in my blood at this very moment, and as the cool sunshine pours through my window I could dance about in it like a gnat.  So I should, only that Charles Sadler would rush upstairs to know what was the matter.  Besides, I must remember that I am Professor Gilroy.  An old professor may afford to be natural, but when fortune has given one of the first chairs in the university to a man of four-and-thirty he must try and act the part consistently.

What a fellow Wilson is!  If I could only throw the same enthusiasm into physiology that he does into psychology, I should become a Claude Bernard at the least.  His whole life and soul and energy work to one end.  He drops to sleep collating his results of the past day, and he wakes to plan his researches for the coming one.  And yet, outside the narrow circle who follow his proceedings, he gets so little credit for it.  Physiology is a recognized science.  If I add even a brick to the edifice, every one sees and applauds it.  But Wilson is trying to dig the foundations for a science of the future.  His work is underground and does not show.  Yet he goes on uncomplainingly, corresponding with a hundred semi-maniacs in the hope of finding one reliable witness, sifting a hundred lies on the chance of gaining one little speck of truth, collating old books, devouring new ones, experimenting, lecturing, trying to light up in others the fiery interest which is consuming him.  I am filled with wonder and admiration when I think of him, and yet, when he asks me to associate myself with his researches, I am compelled to tell him that, in their present state, they offer little attraction to a man who is devoted to exact science.  If he could show me something positive and objective, I might then be tempted to approach the question from its physiological side.  So long as half his subjects are tainted with charlatanerie and the other half with hysteria we physiologists must content ourselves with the body and leave the mind to our descendants.

No doubt I am a materialist.  Agatha says that I am a rank one.  I tell her that is an excellent reason for shortening our engagement, since I am in such urgent need of her spirituality.  And yet I may claim to be a curious example of the effect of education upon temperament, for by nature I am, unless I deceive myself, a highly psychic man.  I was a nervous, sensitive boy, a dreamer, a somnambulist, full of impressions and intuitions.  My black hair, my dark eyes, my thin, olive face, my tapering fingers, are all characteristic of my real temperament, and cause experts like Wilson to claim me as their own.  But my brain is soaked with exact knowledge.  I have trained myself to deal only with fact and with proof.  Surmise and fancy have no place in my scheme of thought.  Show me what I can see with my microscope, cut with my scalpel, weigh in my balance, and I will devote a lifetime to its investigation.  But when you ask me to study feelings, impressions, suggestions, you ask me to do what is distasteful and even demoralizing.  A departure from pure reason affects me like an evil smell or a musical discord.

Which is a very sufficient reason why I am a little loath to go to Professor Wilson's tonight.  Still I feel that I could hardly get out of the invitation without positive rudeness; and, now that Mrs. Marden and Agatha are going, of course I would not if I could.  But I had rather meet them

Reviews for The Parasite

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novella concerns a scientist, Professor Gilroy, whose scepticism about the rational basis for hypnotism is replaced by his horror in actually being hypnotised by a Miss Penclosa and forced to carry out actions against his will of which he has no memory afterwards. Miss Penclosa's powerful mind increasingly dominates and controls the Professor's every waking and sleeping moment and he is eventually forced to contemplate a dramatic final solution to the problem in quite a gripping conclusion. A good, short read.

[angelajmaher · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an intriguing tale, revolving around mesmerism. Short, but enjoyable. Suspense bordering on horror.