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Path: utzoo!kcarroll
From: kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: E.T.: Phone For A Second Opinion
Message-ID: <3563@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-Feb-84 15:37:25 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.3563
Posted: Mon Feb 20 15:37:25 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Feb-84 15:37:25 EST
References: <16640@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 25

*

   I read a story a few years ago (by Frederic Brown, I think),
in which an alien's ship crashes in the sea, off the coast of an
East European fishing community.  The local doctor is called in to try
to help the injured pilot.  The doctor is the only one i the village who
doesn't think of the creature as a demon, and has some inkling of life
coming from other planets.  However, he has little idea of what medical
procedures to use. He decides the safest course is to simply dress
the creature's wounds, and avoid giving it any injections or drugs.
He uses sterilized dressings impregnated with (I think) some sort of
sulphur compound (as an antibiotic). Te sulphur reacts with the creature's
"blood"; the thing screams, goes into convulsions and dies.
   The point of the story has a lot to do with the facetious "ST mal-
practice suit".  Terrestrial medicine uses a set of chemicals that are
compatible with our bodily makeup, and which are designed to provoke
certain responses in our bodies.  An alien, the product of an
entirely different evolutionary system, would almost certainly react
differently to our medicines than we'd expect.  In this story,
he reacted chemically instead of medically, an entirely likely
result.  That's what mainly spoiled the ending of Speilberg's
film for me.

-Kieran A. Carroll
...decvax!utzoo!kcarroll