In the middle of the nineteenth century, in our strange world, a class of people began to multiply.Most of them were approaching old age, and they were called "scientists" by everyone, which was quite appropriate, but they liked it very much.They loathed the title so much that they carefully avoided it in their representative paper called Nature, as if all bad words were derived from it.However, the great public and its publishing world know very well that they are "scientists", and no matter what the occasion, as long as they show up, people must at least call them "excellent scientists". "Eminent scientist", or "famous scientist".

Of course, Mr. Bensington and Professor Redwood were fully worthy of those titles long before they made the curious discoveries that this story is about.Mr. Bensington is a Fellow of the Royal Society and President of the Chemical Society; Professor Redwood is a professor of physiology at Bond Street College, University of London, and has been vilified by anti-vivisectionists.From a very young age, both of them had been academically distinct. The looks of these two scientists were, of course, ordinary, as are all true scientists.In terms of personal characteristics, the most humble actor in the world has more than all the members of the entire Royal Society combined.Mr. Bensington is of short stature, very bald on the top of his head, slightly stooped; he wears a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles, and wears a pair of cloth boots, which have been cut many times because of many corns on his feet.Professor Redwood is similarly unremarkable.They lived a life of conscientiousness until they stumbled upon "God Food" (I must insist on calling it that).Living in obscurity, it is difficult to find anything to tell readers.

Mr. Bensington's fame (if a rag-booted gentleman may be so called) was achieved by his excellent studies of the more poisonous alkaloids.As for how Professor Redwood became famous, I don't remember very clearly, anyway, I know he is very famous.This sort of thing tends to be the case.I think it may be because of a work published by "Der Spiegel Times", which has countless inserts, all of which are images drawn by pulsographs (the author will say this for the time being. To the reader), plus a It's a nice new term, and he became famous because of this book. The average person rarely or never sees these two gentlemen.Sometimes we see Mr. Bensington more or less at the Royal Academy and the Academy of Arts and so on, at least with his bald red head and stiff collar and coat and whatnot, and hear him imagining himself making speeches or The incoherent muttering of the papers being read, and where is Professor Redwood? Out of curiosity, the two followed with paper bags in their hands.Primous lady, sent through a door marked "Billards" and "Billballs." Into a repulsive darkness save for a circle of white light from a slide showing Redwood's image .

As I watched the slides go one by one, someone was speaking (I forget what) and I thought it was Professor Redwood's voice.The hiss of the slide projector and another sound piqued my curiosity and kept me there.It wasn't until the lights came on unexpectedly that I figured out it was bun chewing.The sound of sandwiches and other eating, these members of the British Association have assembled here, munching under the cover of slide-show darkness. I remember when the lights came on, Redwood was still talking, tapping the screen where his diagram should have appeared—and it did appear again as soon as the room darkened.In my impression, he was very ordinary at that time, and looked a little neurotic.The dark man, with a thoughtful air, seemed to be doing what he was doing out of an unreasonable sense of duty.

I also heard Bensington's voice once - it was very early - at an education conference in Bloomsbury.Like most eminent chemists and botanists, Mr. Bensington has the authority to teach - though I dare say he would have been scared out of his wits by an ordinary public school class in half an hour - — As far as I can remember now, he was proposing improvements to Professor Armstrong's heuristic teaching method.In that way, at the expense of three or four hundred pounds for apparatus and equipment, completely ignoring other subjects, and with the full attention of a teacher with special talents, an ordinary child can learn chemistry well in ten or twelve years. So thorough and detailed that the result is almost as much as one can learn from a popular cheap textbook that was despised and dismissed in those days.

You see, apart from their science, these two people are quite ordinary.If there's anything unusual about it, it's just that unrealistic air.You will find that, as a species, scientists all over the world are like this.Their greatness is that they always trouble other scientists, and their mystery to the general public, and their not-greatness is also what is obviously called not-greatness, no doubt, There is no one who is so obviously involved in small things.As far as intercourse with men they lived in a very narrow circle, devoted their energies to their explorations, and were almost as reclusive as monks.In this way, the other aspects of life naturally have little left.Saw someone weird.Shy, deformed.Hair flowers from.The self-important little man who makes a great discovery, wears some kind of sash, entertains his peers at a rally or reads about the "ignoring science" of the Royal Society being ignored by the angel who presides over the King's Birthday Honors To watch the anguish expressed by the actions of one indomitable lichen expert, or to hear one indomitable lichen expert comment on the research of another indomitable lichen scholar, is simply incapable of making one realize the irrevocable insignificance of human beings.

Nevertheless, the treasury of science built and still being built by these tiny "scientists" is so miraculous, so weird, so full of half-formed mysterious hopes for the great future of mankind!They don't seem to understand what they're doing.No doubt, long ago, when Mr. Bensington chose the name, when he poured his all on alkaloids and compounds like them, he too had a vague sense of that vision—and not just a vague Feel.Without that kind of inspiration—for such glory and status can be expected only as a "scientist"—what young man would dedicate his life to this kind of work?No, young people do this, they must have seen the glory, they must have had a vision, but it was too close to blind their eyes.Thanks to the brilliant light that blinded their eyes, they could safely hold the lamp of knowledge aloft for the rest of their lives—to illuminate us!

Perhaps that was why Redwood had such a thoughtful air.He was different from their kind--in that respect there was no doubt now--in that something of the phantasy remained in his eyes. I call the substance which Mr. Bensington and Professor Redwood have concocted "God's Food"; and considering what it has done and will do, the name is not an exaggeration.So, I'll keep calling it that in this story.Mr. Bensington, however, was by no means indifferent when he called it so, any more than when he actually put on his stately red robe and laurels and came out of his flat in Sloan Street.The name was blurted out of his mouth in astonishment.In his excitement, he called this substance "God Food", and the total time did not exceed a few hours.Afterwards, he decided that he had been too absurd.In first contemplating the thing before him, he seemed to see great possibilities--great possibilities indeed, but after an inexplicably surprised glance at the dizzying prospect, he He closed his eyes resolutely, just like a conscientious "scientist" should do.Since then, the name "God Food" has sounded harsh to the point of vulgarity.He was surprised that he had even used such a word.However, even so, something of that kind of mind-brightness kept going back, and instead broke through the door again and again.

"Really, you know," he rubbed his hands, laughing nervously, "this stuff is not only interesting in theory." "For example," he said, leaning close to the professor's face, in a very low voice, and confidingly, "Maybe with proper handling, sell." "Exactly," he said, walking away. — "As food. At least as an ingredient in food." "Assuming it's delicious, of course it's okay. There's no way to know this without making it out." He bent down on the hearth rug, studying the carefully cut slits in his cloth boots.

"Name?" He raised his head and answered the other party's question. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm leaning toward a nice, old classic. The name would make science respectable, give it a taste of old-school gravitas. I've been thinking about it" I don't know if you think I'm ridiculous.It's okay to have a little whimsy now and then. The fear of Hercules.Oh?A possible earth food for Heraclitus?you know it can 【① Heracles: The giant in Greek mythology, Hercules, the son of Zeus, accomplished many heroic deeds. 】 "Of course, if you don't agree—"

Redwood looked at the fire and pondered, but Moyu expressed his objection. "Do you think it is okay?" Redwood nodded gravely. "It could be called Tadan's Fear, you know. Do you prefer Tadan's food?" "You don't really think it's a little too—" "No." "Ah! I'm so glad." so.They called it the "Fear of Hercules" throughout their research, and in their reports—which were never published because accidents disrupted their arrangements—it was always written that way. .They concocted three kinds of substances to come up with this presumed thing.They called the three the Horror of Heracles No. 1, the Horror of Heracles No. 2, and the Horror of Heracles No. 3.It is this Horror of Hercules, No. 4, which I - sticking to Bensington's original name - call here "The Food of God." The idea was originally Mr. Bensington's.But since he was inspired by an article in the Philosophical Transactions of Professor Redwood, he properly consulted it before proceeding further. that mr.Again, the idea, as a quest, is as much chemical as it is physiological. Professor Redwood is one of those scientific figures who loves images and curves.If you're really my type of reader, you'll be familiar with the scientific papers I'm talking about.After reading these papers, I don’t know what to say at all. At the end, there are always five or six long stacked charts. When I open them, they are full of weird zigzag lines, overdrawn lightning bolts, and some intertwined vertically and horizontally. Complicated and inexplicable things called "smooth curves" on the coordinate axis-things like this, you will be confused for a long time when you see these things, and in the end, you will doubt not only you, but also the author himself. don't know.But really, you know, many of the scientists know very well what their own papers mean, and it's just a defect in expression that gets in the way with us. I tend to think that Redwood thinks in terms of images and curves.After finishing his monumental work in Spiegel Times (bear with me, non-scientific readers, and it will all become clear), Redwood made some headlines about growth. Smooth curves and plethysmographic images, it was one of his treatises on the problem of growth that conceived Mr. Bensington. As you know, Redwood has been measuring the growth of various creatures, such as small dogs, puppies, sunflowers, mushrooms, string beans, etc.; and his own infant son (until his wife stops it), he explained. The growth of things is not uniform, that is, according to his notation: but with bursts and pauses of this form: Apparently, nothing ever grows at a constant rate.Nothing, so far as he knew, could grow at a constant rate; it seemed that every living thing must accumulate the power to grow, and grow vigorously for a while, and then wait a while before continuing to grow.Redwood does it with the kind of dullness of a really careful "scientist".Highly specialized language suggests that the growth process may require a considerable amount of a substance in the blood which can only be formed very slowly and which, when the growth process has exhausted it, can only be replenished very slowly, During this time, the organism stops growing.Redwood likened the unknown substance to oil in a machine.A growing animal, he says, is much like an engine that, after a certain distance, must be refueled before it can continue ("Why, then, can't the engine be refueled from the outside?" Bensington said when he saw the article).We might find out, says Redwood, in the endearingly neurotic incoherent way of his kind, that all this will help explain some of the mysteries of the endocrine glands.It seems that those endocrine glands have something to do with this.In a subsequent article, Redwood went a step further, showing the full benefits of Block-style diagrams—they are like rocket launch trajectories; kitten.Puppy blood and sunflowers.In the mushroom sap, several components are in different proportions during what Redwood calls the "growing phase" and when they are not actually growing. Mr. Bentonton turned the diagrams this way and that, and was amazed when he began to see the difference.Because, you know, these differences are probably due to something that he's been working on lately.Caused by alkaloids that have the greatest stimulating effect on the nervous system. He put Redwood's papers on the black lacquered desk that slanted awkwardly to one side of the armchair, took off his gold-rimmed spectacles, and, with a sigh, wiped them very carefully. "Good God!" said Mr. Bensington. Then, he put on his glasses and turned to the black-lacquered desk. As soon as he put his arm on the handle, the desk creaked coquettishly, scattering papers and all the charts on the floor in a mess. "For God's sake!" said Mr. Bensington, resting his belly against the arm of the chair and patiently reaching for it. Evidently he was used to this simple way of saving trouble; up to find.It was when he was crawling on the ground that the idea of ​​calling that substance "God Food" entered his mind Because, you know, if he's thinking right, and Redwood is right, by injecting this new substance, or adding it to his food, he can cancel the "resting period" and the growth process Can be like this (see what I mean?) Mr. Bensington did not close his eyes almost the night of the conversation with Redwood.Once, he seemed to be confused for a moment, but it was only for a blink of an eye.Then, I dreamed that he dug a big deep hole into the center of the earth, poured tons and tons of "stretching food", the earth swelled, swelled, swelled, and the borders of all countries burst open, the Royal Geographical Society People are all out to work, like a gang of tailors zooming in on the equator line It was an absurd dream, of course, but it showed Mr. Bensington's state of psychic excitement, and the true value of the idea he had ascribed to himself, more clearly than he could have said or done in his waking and prudent moments. Much clearer.otherwise.I won't mention it, because generally speaking, I don't think it's really interesting for people to talk about each other's dreams. By pure coincidence, Redwood also had a dream that night, and his dream went like this: This is an image drawn by humans on an unfathomably long roll of paper.He (Redwood) was on a row, standing in front of a black lectern or something, explaining a new way of growing that was now possible.Its growth ability is far stronger than that used to be seen in the past, and the growth ability in the past was even lower than that of the race.This has always been the case in empires, galaxies, and in general. Sometimes even this: He shows quite thoroughly and convincingly that these slow and even regressive ways will be quickly eliminated by his discovery. Ridiculous? Of course it is!But it also shows that— Neither of these dreams can by any means be considered to have had any significance beyond what I have already stated, or to have any prophetic character, I never say so.