Certainly, if ever a man found a guinea when he was looking for a pin, it is my good friend Professor Gibberne. I have heard before of investigators1 overshooting the mark, but never quite to the extent that he has done. He has really, this time at any rate, without any touch of exaggeration in the phrase, found something to revolutionise human life. And that when he was simply seeking an all-round nervous stimulant2 to bring languid people up to the stresses of these pushful days. I have tasted the stuff now several times, and I cannot do better than describe the effect the thing had on me. That there are astonishing experiences in store for all in search of new sensations will become apparent enough.
Professor Gibberne, as many people know, is my neighbour in Folkestone. Unless my memory plays me a trick, his portrait at various ages has already appeared in The Strand3 Magazine — think late in 1899 but I am unable to look it up because I have lent that volume to someone who has never sent it back. The reader may, perhaps, recall the high forehead and the singularly long black eyebrows4 that give such a Mephistophelean touch to his face. He occupies one of those pleasant little detached houses in the mixed style that make the western end of the Upper Sandgate Road so interesting. His is the one with the Flemish gables and the Moorish5 portico6, and it is in the little room with the mullioned bay window that he works when he is down here, and in which of an evening we have so often smoked and talked together. He is a mighty7 jester, but, besides, he likes to talk to me about his work; he is one of those men who find a help and stimulus8 in talking, and so I have been able to follow the conception of the New Accelerator right up from a very early stage. Of course, the greater portion of his experimental work is not done in Folkestone, but in Gower Street, in the fine new laboratory next to the hospital that he has been the first to use.
As every one knows, or at least as all intelligent people know, the special department in which Gibberne has gained so great and deserved a reputation among physiologists9 is the action of drugs upon the nervous system. Upon soporifics, sedatives10, and anaesthetics he is, I am told, unequalled. He is also a chemist of considerable eminence11, and I suppose in the subtle and complex jungle of riddles12 that centres about the ganglion cell and the axis13 fibre there are little cleared places of his making, little glades14 of illumination, that, until he sees fit to publish his results, are still inaccessible15 to every other living man. And in the last few years he has been particularly assiduous upon this question of nervous stimulants16, and already, before the discovery of the New Accelerator, very successful with them. Medical science has to thank him for at least three distinct and absolutely safe invigorators of unrivalled value to practising men. In cases of exhaustion17 the preparation known as Gibberne’s B Syrup18 has, I suppose, saved more lives already than any lifeboat round the coast.
“But none of these little things begin to satisfy me yet,” he told me nearly a year ago. “Either they increase the central energy without affecting the nerves, or they simply increase the available energy by lowering the nervous conductivity; and all of them are unequal and local in their operation. One wakes up the heart and viscera and leaves the brain stupefied, one gets at the brain champagne19 fashion, and does nothing good for the solar plexus, and what I want — and what, if it’s an earthly possibility, I mean to have — is a stimulant that stimulates20 all round, that wakes you up for a time from the crown of your head to the tip of your great toe, and makes you go two — or even three — to everybody else’s one. Eh? That’s the thing I’m after.”
“It would tire a man,” I said.
“Not a doubt of it. And you’d eat double or treble — and all that. But just think what the thing would mean. Imagine yourself with a little phial like this”— he held up a little bottle of green glass and marked his points with it —“and in this precious phial is the power to think twice as fast, move twice as quickly, do twice as much work in a given time as you could otherwise do.”
“But is such a thing possible?”
“I believe so. If it isn’t, I’ve wasted my time for a year. These various preparations of the hypophosphites, for example, seem to show that something of the sort . . . Even if it was only one and a half times as fast it would do.”
“It would do,” I said.
“If you were a statesman in a corner, for example, time rushing up against you, something urgent to be done, eh?”
“He could dose his private secretary,” I said.
“And gain — double time. And think if you, for example, wanted to finish a book.”
“Usually,” I said, “I wish I’d never begun ’em.”
“Or a doctor, driven to death, wants to sit down and think out a case. Or a barrister — or a man cramming21 for an examination.”
“Worth a guinea a drop,” said I, “and more — to men like that.”
“And in a duel22, again,” said Gibberne, “where it all depends on your quickness in pulling the trigger.”
“Or in fencing,” I echoed.
“You see,” said Gibberne, “if I get it as an all-round thing, it will really do you no harm at all — except perhaps to an infinitesimal degree it brings you nearer old age. You will just have lived twice to other people’s once —”
“I suppose,” I meditated23, “in a duel — it would be fair?”
“That’s a question for the seconds,” said Gibberne.
I harked back further. “And you really think such a thing is possible?” I said.
“As possible,” said Gibberne, and glanced at something that went throbbing24 by the window, “as a motor-bus. As a matter of fact —”
He paused and smiled at me deeply, and tapped slowly on the edge of his desk with the green phial. “I think I know the stuff . . . Already I’ve got something coming.” The nervous smile upon his face betrayed the gravity of his revelation. He rarely talked of his actual experimental work unless things were very near the end. “And it may be, it may be — I shouldn’t be surprised — it may even do the thing at a greater rate than twice.”
“It will be rather a big thing,” I hazarded.
“It will be, I think, rather a big thing.”
But I don’t think he quite knew what a big thing it was to be, for all that.
I remember we had several talks about the stuff after that. “The New Accelerator” he called it, and his tone about it grew more confident on each occasion. Sometimes he talked nervously25 of unexpected physiological26 results its use might have, and then he would get a little unhappy; at others he was frankly27 mercenary, and we debated long and anxiously how the preparation might be turned to commercial account. “It’s a good thing,” said Gibberne, “a tremendous thing. I know I’m giving the world something, and I think it only reasonable we should expect the world to pay. The dignity of science is all very well, but I think somehow I must have the monopoly of the stuff for, say, ten years. I don’t see why all the fun in life should go to the dealers28 in ham.”
My own interest in the coming drug certainly did not wane29 in the time. I have always had a queer little twist towards metaphysics in my mind. I have always been given to paradoxes30 about space and time, and it seemed to me that Gibberne was really preparing no less than the absolute acceleration31 of life. Suppose a man repeatedly dosed with such a preparation: he would live an active and record life indeed, but he would be an adult at eleven, aged33" target="_blank">middle-aged32 at twenty-five, and by thirty well on the road to senile decay. It seemed to me that so far Gibberne was only going to do for any one who took his drug exactly what Nature has done for the Jews and Orientals, who are men in their teens and aged by fifty, and quicker in thought and act than we are all the time. The marvel34 of drugs has always been great to my mind; you can madden a man, calm a man, make him incredibly strong and alert or a helpless log, quicken this passion and allay35 that, all by means of drugs, and here was a new miracle to be added to this strange armoury of phials the doctors use! But Gibberne was far too eager upon his technical points to enter very keenly into my aspect of the question.
It was the 7th or 8th of August when he told me the distillation36 that would decide his failure or success for a time was going forward as we talked, and it was on the 10th that he told me the thing was done and the New Accelerator a tangible37 reality in the world. I met him as I was going up the Sandgate Hill towards Folkestone — I think I was going to get my hair cut, and he came hurrying down to meet me — I suppose he was coming to my house to tell me at once of his success. I remember that his eyes were unusually bright and his face flushed, and I noted38 even then the swift alacrity39 of his step.
“It’s done,” he cried, and gripped my hand, speaking very fast; “it’s more than done. Come up to my house and see.”
“Really?”
“Really!” he shouted. “Incredibly! Come up and see.”
“And it does — twice?”
“It does more, much more. It scares me. Come up and see the stuff. Taste it! Try it! It’s the most amazing stuff on earth.” He gripped my arm and; walking at such a pace that he forced me into a trot40, went shouting with me up the hill. A whole char-à-banc-ful of people turned and stared at us in unison41 after the manner of people in chars-à-banc. It was one of those hot, clear days that Folkestone sees so much of, every colour incredibly bright and every outline hard. There was a breeze, of course, but not so much breeze as sufficed under these conditions to keep me cool and dry. I panted for mercy.
“I’m not walking fast, am I?” cried Gibberne, and slackened his pace to a quick march.
“You’ve been taking some of this stuff,” I puffed43.
“No,” he said. “At the utmost a drop of water that stood in a beaker from which I had washed out the last traces of the stuff. I took some last night, you know. But that is ancient history now.”
“And it goes twice?” I said, nearing his doorway44 in a grateful perspiration45.
“It goes a thousand times, many thousand times!” cried Gibberne, with a dramatic gesture, flinging open his Early English carved oak gate.
“Phew!” said I, and followed him to the door.
“I don’t know how many times it goes,” he said, with his latch-key in his hand.
“And you ——”
“It throws all sorts of light on nervous physiology46, it kicks the theory of vision into a perfectly47 new shape! . . . Heaven knows how many thousand times. We’ll try all that after —— The thing is to try the stuff now.”
“Try the stuff?” I said, as we went along the passage.
“Rather,” said Gibberne, turning on me in his study. “There it is in that little green phial there! Unless you happen to be afraid?”
I am a careful man by nature, and only theoretically adventurous48. I was afraid. But on the other hand, there is pride.
“Well,” I haggled49. “You say you’ve tried it?”
“I’ve tried it,” he said, “and I don’t look hurt by it, do I? I don’t even look livery, and I feel ——”
I sat down. “Give me the potion,” I said. “If the worst comes to the worst it will save having my hair cut, and that, I think, is one of the most hateful duties of a civilised man. How do you take the mixture?”
“With water,” said Gibberne, whacking50 down a carafe52.
He stood up in front of his desk and regarded me in his easy-chair; his manner was suddenly affected53 by a touch of the Harley Street specialist. “It’s rum stuff, you know,” he said.
I made a gesture with my hand.
“I must warn you, in the first place, as soon as you’ve got it down to shut your eyes, and open them very cautiously in a minute or so’s time. One still sees. The sense of vision is a question of length of vibration54, and not of multitude of impacts; but there’s a kind of shock to the retina, a nasty giddy confusion just at the time if the eyes are open. Keep ’em shut.”
“Shut,” I said. “Good!”
“And the next thing is, keep still. Don’t begin to whack51 about. You may fetch something a nasty rap if you do. Remember you will be going several thousand times faster than you ever did before, heart, lungs, muscles, brain — everything — and you will hit hard without knowing it. You won’t know it, you know. You’ll feel just as you do now. Only everything in the world will seem to be going ever so many thousand times slower than it ever went before. That’s what makes it so deuced queer.”
“Lor,” I said. “And you mean ——”
“You’ll see,” said he, and took up a little measure. He glanced at the material on his desk. “Glasses,” he said, “water. All here. Mustn’t take too much for the first attempt.”
The little phial glucked out its precious contents. “Don’t forget what I told you,” he said, turning the contents of the measure into a glass in the manner of an Italian waiter measuring whisky. “Sit with the eyes tightly shut and in absolute stillness for two minutes,” he said. “Then you will hear me speak.”
He added an inch or so of water to the little dose in each glass.
“By-the-by,” he said, “don’t put your glass down. Keep it in your hand and rest your hand on your knee. Yes — so. And now ——”
He raised his glass.
“The New Accelerator,” I said.
“The New Accelerator,” he answered, and we touched glasses and drank, and instantly I closed my eyes.
You know that blank non-existence into which one drops when one has taken “gas.” For an indefinite interval55 it was like that. Then I heard Gibberne telling me to wake up, and I stirred and opened my eyes. There he stood as he had been standing56, glass still in hand. It was empty, that was all the difference.
“Well?” said I.
“Nothing out of the way?”
“Nothing. A slight feeling of exhilaration, perhaps. Nothing more.”
“Sounds?”
“Things are still,” I said. “By Jove! yes! They are still. Except the sort of faint pat, patter, like rain falling on different things. What is it?”
“Analysed sounds,” I think he said, but I am not sure. He glanced at the window. “Have you ever seen a curtain before a window fixed58 in that way before?”
I followed his eyes, and there was the end of the curtain, frozen, as it were, corner high, in the act of flapping briskly in the breeze.
“No,” said I; “that’s odd.”
“And here,” he said, and opened the hand that held the glass. Naturally I winced59, expecting the glass to smash. But so far from smashing, it did not even seem to stir; it hung in mid-air — motionless. “Roughly speaking,” said Gibberne, “an object in these latitudes60 falls 16 feet in the first second. This glass is falling 16 feet in a second now. Only, you see, it hasn’t been falling yet for the hundredth part of a second. That gives you some idea of the pace of my Accelerator.”
And he waved his hand round and round, over and under the slowly sinking glass. Finally he took it by the bottom, pulled it down and placed it very carefully on the table. “Eh?” he said to me, and laughed.
“That seems all right,” I said, and began very gingerly to raise myself from my chair. I felt perfectly well, very light and comfortable, and quite confident in my mind. I was going fast all over. My heart, for example, was beating a thousand times a second, but that caused me no discomfort61 at all. I looked out of the window. An immovable cyclist, head down and with a frozen puff42 of dust behind his driving-wheel, scorched62 to overtake a galloping63 char-à-banc that did not stir. I gaped64 in amazement65 at this incredible spectacle. “Gibberne,” I cried, “how long will this confounded stuff last?”
“Heaven knows!” he answered. “Last time I took it I went to bed and slept it off. I tell you, I was frightened. It must have lasted some minutes, I think — it seemed like hours. But after a bit it slows down rather suddenly, I believe.”
I was proud to observe that I did not feel frightened — I suppose because there were two of us. “Why shouldn’t we go out?” I asked.
“Why not?”
“They’ll see us.”
“Not they. Goodness, no! Why, we shall be going a thousand times faster than the quickest conjuring66 trick that was ever done. Come along! Which way shall we go? Window, or door?”
And out by the window we went.
Assuredly of all the strange experiences that I have ever had, or imagined, or read of other people having or imagining, that little raid I made with Gibberne on the Folkestone Leas, under the influence of the New Accelerator, was the strangest and maddest of all. We went out by his gate into the road, and there we made a minute examination of the statuesque passing traffic. The tops of the wheels and some of the legs of the horses of this char-à-banc, the end of the whip-lash and the lower jaw67 of the conductor — who was just beginning to yawn — were perceptibly in motion, but all the rest of the lumbering68 conveyance69 seemed still. And quite noiseless except for a faint rattling70 that came from one man’s throat. And as parts of this frozen edifice71 there were a driver, you know, and a conductor, and eleven people! The effect as we walked about the thing began by being madly queer and ended by being — disagreeable. There they were, people like ourselves and yet not like ourselves, frozen in careless attitudes, caught in mid-gesture. A girl and a man smiled at one another, a leering smile that threatened to last for evermore; a woman in a floppy72 capelline rested her arm on the rail and stared at Gibberne’s house with the unwinking stare of eternity76; a man stroked his moustache like a figure of wax, and another stretched a tiresome77 stiff hand with extended fingers towards his loosened hat. We stared at them, we laughed at them, we made faces at them, and then a sort of disgust of them came upon us, and we turned away and walked round in front of the cyclist towards the Leas.
“Goodness!” cried Gibberne, suddenly; “look there!”
He pointed78, and there at the tip of his finger and sliding down the air with wings flapping slowly and at the speed of an exceptionally languid snail79 — was a bee.
And so we came out upon the Leas. There the thing seemed madder than ever. The band was playing in the upper stand, though all the sound it made for us was a low-pitched, wheezy rattle80, a sort of prolonged last sigh that passed at times into a sound like the slow, muffled81 ticking of some monstrous82 clock. Frozen people stood erect83, strange, silent, self-conscious-looking dummies84 hung unstably85 in mid-stride, promenading86 upon the grass. I passed close to a little poodle dog suspended in the act of leaping, and watched the slow movement of his legs as he sank to earth. “Lord, look here!” cried Gibberne, and we halted for a moment before a magnificent person in white faint — striped flannels87, white shoes, and a Panama hat, who turned back to wink74 at two gaily88 dressed ladies he had passed. A wink, studied with such leisurely89 deliberation as we could afford, is an unattractive thing. It loses any quality of alert gaiety, and one remarks that the winking75 eye does not completely close, that under its drooping90 lid appears the lower edge of an eyeball and a little line of white. “Heaven give me memory,” said I, “and I will never wink again.”
“Or smile,” said Gibberne, with his eye on the lady’s answering teeth.
“It’s infernally hot, somehow,” said I, “Let’s go slower.”
“Oh, come along!” said Gibberne.
We picked our way among the bath-chairs in the path. Many of the people sitting in the chairs seemed almost natural in their passive poses, but the contorted scarlet91 of the bandsmen was not a restful thing to see. A purple-faced little gentleman was frozen in the midst of a violent struggle to refold his newspaper against the wind; there were many evidences that all these people in their sluggish92 way were exposed to a considerable breeze, a breeze that had no existence so far as our sensations went. We came out and walked a little way from the crowd, and turned and regarded it. To see all that multitude changed to a picture, smitten93 rigid94, as it were, into the semblance95 of realistic wax, was impossibly wonderful. It was absurd, of course; but it filled me with an irrational96, an exultant97 sense of superior advantage. Consider the wonder of it! All that I had said, and thought, and done since the stuff had begun to work in my veins98 had happened, so far as those people, so far as the world in general went, in the twinkling of an eye. “The New Accelerator ——” I began, but Gibberne interrupted me.
“There’s that infernal old woman!” he said.
“What old woman?”
“Lives next door to me,” said Gibberne. “Has a lapdog that yaps. Gods! The temptation is strong!”
There is something very boyish and impulsive99 about Gibberne at times. Before I could expostulate with him he had dashed forward, snatched the unfortunate animal out of visible existence, and was running violently with it towards the cliff of the Leas. It was most extraordinary. The little brute100, you know, didn’t bark or wriggle101 or make the slightest sign of vitality102. It kept quite stiffly in an attitude of somnolent103 repose104, and Gibberne held it by the neck. It was like running about with a dog of wood. “Gibberne,” I cried, “put it down!” Then I said something else. “If you run like that, Gibberne,” I cried, “you’ll set your clothes on fire. Your linen105 trousers are going brown as it is!”
He clapped his hand on his thigh106 and stood hesitating on the verge107. “Gibberne,” I cried, coming up, “put it down. This heat is too much! It’s our running so! Two or three miles a second! Friction108 of the air!”
“What?” he said, glancing at the dog.
“Friction of the air,” I shouted. “Friction of the air. Going too fast. Like meteorites109 and things. Too hot. And, Gibberne! Gibberne! I’m all over pricking110 and a sort of perspiration. You can see people stirring slightly. I believe the stuff’s working off! Put that dog down.”
“Eh?” he said.
“It’s working off,” I repeated. “We’re too hot and the stuff’s working off! I’m wet through.”
He stared at me, then at the band, the wheezy rattle of whose performance was certainly going faster. Then with a tremendous sweep of the arm he hurled111 the dog away from him and it went spinning upward, still inanimate, and hung at last over the grouped parasols of a knot of chattering112 people. Gibberne was gripping my elbow. “By Jove!” he cried, “I believe it is! A sort of hot pricking and — yes. That man’s moving his pocket-handkerchief! Perceptibly. We must get out of this sharp.”
But we could not get out of it sharply enough. Luckily, perhaps! For we might have run, and if we had run we should, I believe, have burst into flames. Almost certainly we should have burst into flames! You know we had neither of us thought of that . . . But before we could even begin to run the action of the drug had ceased. It was the business of a minute fraction of a second. The effect of the New Accelerator passed like the drawing of a curtain, vanished in the movement of a hand. I heard Gibberne’s voice in infinite alarm. “Sit down,” he said, and flop73, down upon the turf at the edge of the Leas I sat — scorching113 as I sat. There is a patch of burnt grass there still where I sat down. The whole stagnation114 seemed to wake up as I did so, the disarticulated vibration of the band rushed together into a blast of music, the promenaders put their feet down and walked their ways, the papers and flags began flapping, smiles passed into words, the winker115 finished his wink and went on his way complacently116, and all the seated people moved and spoke117.
The whole world had come alive again, was going as fast as we were, or rather we were going no faster than the rest of the world. It was like slowing down as one comes into a railway station. Everything seemed to spin round for a second or two, I had the most transient feeling of nausea118, and that was all. And the little dog, which had seemed to hang for a moment when the force of Gibberne’s arm was expended119, fell with a swift acceleration clean through a lady’s parasol!
That was the saving of us. Unless it was for one corpulent old gentleman in a bath-chair, who certainly did start at the sight of us, and afterwards regarded us at intervals120 with a darkly suspicious eye, and, finally, I believe, said something to his nurse about us, I doubt if a solitary121 person remarked our sudden appearance among them. Plop! We must have appeared abruptly122. We ceased to smoulder almost at once, though the turf beneath me was uncomfortably hot. The attention of every one — including even the Amusements’ Association band, which on this occasion, for the only time in its history, got out of tune123 — was arrested by the amazing fact, and the still more amazing yapping and uproar124 caused by the fact, that a respectable, over-fed lapdog sleeping quietly to the east of the bandstand should suddenly fall through the parasol of a lady on the west — in a slightly singed125 condition due to the extreme velocity126 of its movements through the air. In these absurd days, too, when we are all trying to be as psychic127, and silly, and superstitious128 as possible! People got up and trod on other people, chairs were overturned, the Leas policeman ran. How the matter settled itself I do not know — we were much too anxious to disentangle ourselves from the affair and get out of range of the eye of the old gentleman in the bath-chair to make minute inquiries129. As soon as we were sufficiently130 cool and sufficiently recovered from our giddiness and nausea and confusion of mind to do so we stood up, and skirting the crowd, directed our steps back along the road below the Metropole towards Gibberne’s house. But amidst the din57 I heard very distinctly the gentleman who had been sitting beside the lady of the ruptured131 sunshade using quite unjustifiable threats and language to one of those chair-attendants who have “Inspector” written on their caps: “If you didn’t throw the dog,” he said, “who did?”
The sudden return of movement and familiar noises, and our natural anxiety about ourselves (our clothes were still dreadfully hot, and the fronts of the thighs132 of Gibberne’s white trousers were scorched a drabbish brown), prevented the minute observations I should have liked to make on all these things. Indeed, I really made no observations of any scientific value on that return. The bee, of course, had gone. I looked for that cyclist, but he was already out of sight as we came into the Upper Sandgate Road or hidden from us by traffic; the char-à-banc, however, with its people now all alive and stirring, was clattering133 along at a spanking134 pace almost abreast135 of the nearer church.
We noted, however, that the window-sill on which we had stepped in getting out of the house was slightly singed, and that the impressions of our feet on the gravel136 of the path were unusually deep.
So it was I had my first experience of the New Accelerator. Practically we had been running about and saying and doing all sorts of things in the space of a second or so of time. We had lived half an hour while the band had played, perhaps, two bars. But the effect it had upon us was that the whole world had stopped for our convenient inspection137. Considering all things, and particularly considering our rashness in venturing out of the house, the experience might certainly have been much more disagreeable than it was. It showed, no doubt, that Gibberne has still much to learn before his preparation is a manageable convenience, but its practicability it certainly demonstrated beyond all cavil138.
Since that adventure he has been steadily139 bringing its use under control, and I have several times, and without the slightest bad result, taken measured doses under his direction; though I must confess I have not yet ventured abroad again while under its influence. I may mention, for example, that this story has been written at one sitting and without interruption, except for the nibbling140 of some chocolate, by its means. I began at 6.25, and my watch is now very nearly at the minute past the half-hour. The convenience of securing a long, uninterrupted spell of work in the midst of a day full of engagements cannot be exaggerated. Gibberne is now working at the quantitative141 handling of his preparation, with especial reference to its distinctive142 effects upon different types of constitution. He then hopes to find a Retarder143, with which to dilute144 its present rather excessive potency145. The Retarder will, of course, have the reverse effect to the Accelerator; used alone it should enable the patient to spread a few seconds over many hours of ordinary time, and so to maintain an apathetic146 inaction, a glacier-like absence of alacrity, amidst the most animated147 or irritating surroundings. The two things together must necessarily work an entire revolution in civilised existence. It is the beginning of our escape from that Time Garment of which Carlyle speaks. While this Accelerator will enable us to concentrate ourselves with tremendous impact upon any moment or occasion that demands our utmost sense and vigour148, the Retarder will enable us to pass in passive tranquillity149 through infinite hardship and tedium150. Perhaps I am a little optimistic about the Retarder, which has indeed still to be discovered, but about the Accelerator there is no possible sort of doubt whatever. Its appearance upon the market in a convenient, controllable, and assimilable form is a matter of the next few months. It will be obtainable of all chemists and druggists, in small green bottles, at a high but, considering its extraordinary qualities, by no means excessive price. Gibberne’s Nervous Accelerator it will be called, and he hopes to be able to supply it in three strengths: one in 200, one in 900, and one in 2000, distinguished151 by yellow, pink, and white labels respectively.
No doubt its use renders a great number of very extraordinary things possible; for, of course, the most remarkable152 and, possibly, even criminal proceedings153 may be effected with impunity154 by thus dodging155, as it were, into the interstices of time. Like all potent156 preparations, it will be liable to abuse. We have, however, discussed this aspect of the question very thoroughly157, and we have decided158 that this is purely159 a matter of medical jurisprudence and altogether outside our province. We shall manufacture and sell the Accelerator, and as for the consequences — we shall see.
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investigators
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| n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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stimulant
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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eyebrows
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moorish
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portico
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mighty
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stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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physiologists
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| n.生理学者( physiologist的名词复数 )；生理学( physiology的名词复数 )；生理机能 | |
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sedatives
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11
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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12
riddles
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| n.谜（语）( riddle的名词复数 )；猜不透的难题，难解之谜 | |
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13
axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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15
inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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16
stimulants
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| n.兴奋剂( stimulant的名词复数 )；含兴奋剂的饮料；刺激物；激励物 | |
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17
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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18
syrup
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| n.糖浆，糖水 | |
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19
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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20
stimulates
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| v.刺激( stimulate的第三人称单数 )；激励；使兴奋；起兴奋作用，起刺激作用，起促进作用 | |
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21
cramming
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| n.塞满，填鸭式的用功v.塞入( cram的现在分词 )；填塞；塞满；（为考试而）死记硬背功课 | |
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22
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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23
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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24
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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25
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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26
physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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27
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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28
dealers
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| n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者 | |
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29
wane
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| n.衰微，亏缺，变弱；v.变小，亏缺，呈下弦 | |
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30
paradoxes
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| n.似非而是的隽语，看似矛盾而实际却可能正确的说法( paradox的名词复数 )；用于语言文学中的上述隽语；有矛盾特点的人[事物，情况] | |
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31
acceleration
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| n.加速，加速度 | |
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32
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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33
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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34
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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35
allay
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| v.消除，减轻(恐惧、怀疑等) | |
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36
distillation
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| n.蒸馏，蒸馏法 | |
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37
tangible
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| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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38
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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39
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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40
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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41
unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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42
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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43
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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44
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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45
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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46
physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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47
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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48
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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49
haggled
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| v.讨价还价( haggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
whacking
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| adj.（用于强调）巨大的v.重击，使劲打( whack的现在分词 ) | |
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51
whack
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| v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份 | |
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52
carafe
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| n.玻璃水瓶 | |
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53
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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54
vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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55
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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56
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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57
din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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58
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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59
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
latitudes
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| 纬度 | |
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61
discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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62
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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63
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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64
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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65
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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66
conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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67
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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68
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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69
conveyance
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| n.(不动产等的)转让，让与；转让证书；传送；运送；表达；（正）运输工具 | |
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70
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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71
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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72
floppy
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| adj.松软的，衰弱的 | |
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73
flop
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| n.失败(者)，扑通一声；vi.笨重地行动，沉重地落下 | |
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74
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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75
winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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76
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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77
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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78
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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79
snail
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| n.蜗牛 | |
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80
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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81
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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82
monstrous
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|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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83
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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84
dummies
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| n.仿制品( dummy的名词复数 )；橡皮奶头；笨蛋；假传球 | |
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85
unstably
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| adj.不稳固的；不坚定的；易变的；反复无常的 | |
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86
promenading
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| v.兜风( promenade的现在分词 ) | |
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87
flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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88
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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89
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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90
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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91
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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92
sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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93
smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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94
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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95
semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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96
irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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97
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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98
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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99
impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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100
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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101
wriggle
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| v./n.蠕动，扭动；蜿蜒 | |
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102
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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103
somnolent
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| adj.想睡的，催眠的；adv.瞌睡地；昏昏欲睡地；使人瞌睡地 | |
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104
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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105
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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106
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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107
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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108
friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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109
meteorites
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| n.陨星( meteorite的名词复数 ) | |
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110
pricking
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| 刺，刺痕，刺痛感 | |
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111
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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112
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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113
scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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114
stagnation
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| n. 停滞 | |
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115
winker
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| n.使眼色的人，眼罩；遮眼罩 | |
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116
complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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117
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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118
nausea
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| n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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119
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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120
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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121
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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122
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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123
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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124
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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125
singed
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| v.浅表烧焦( singe的过去式和过去分词 )；（毛发）燎，烧焦尖端[边儿] | |
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126
velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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127
psychic
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| n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的 | |
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128
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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129
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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130
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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131
ruptured
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| v.（使）破裂( rupture的过去式和过去分词 )；（使体内组织等）断裂；使（友好关系）破裂；使绝交 | |
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132
thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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133
clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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134
spanking
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| adj.强烈的，疾行的；n.打屁股 | |
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135
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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136
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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137
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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138
cavil
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| v.挑毛病，吹毛求疵 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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140
nibbling
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的现在分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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141
quantitative
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| adj.数量的，定量的 | |
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142
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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143
retarder
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| n. 阻碍者，减速器，[化]迟缩剂 | |
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dilute
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| vt.稀释，冲淡；adj.稀释的，冲淡的 | |
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potency
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| n. 效力，潜能 | |
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apathetic
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| adj.冷漠的，无动于衷的 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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148
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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149
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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150
tedium
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| n.单调；烦闷 | |
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151
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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153
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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154
impunity
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| n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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155
dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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156
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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157
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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158
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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