The Plattner Story And Others The Original 1897 Edition Of 17 Fantasy And Science Fiction Short Stories PDF Download

WHETHER the story of Gottfried Plattner is to be credited or not, is a pretty question in thevalue of evidence. On the one hand, we have seven witnesses-to be perfectly exact, we have sixand a half pairs of eyes, and one undeniable fact; and on the other we have-what is it?-prejudice, common sense, the inertia of opinion. Never were there seven more honest-seeming witnesses;never was there a more undeniable fact than the inversion of Gottfried Plattner's anatomicalstructure, and-never was there a more preposterous story than the one they have to tell! The mostpreposterous part of the story is the worthy Gottfried's contribution (for I count him as one of theseven). Heaven forbid that I should be led into giving countenance to superstition by a passion forimpartiality, and so come to share the fate of Eusapia's patrons! Frankly, I believe there is somethingcrooked about this business of Gottfried Plattner; but what that crooked factor is, I will admit asfrankly, I do not know. I have been surprised at the credit accorded to the story in the mostunexpected and authoritative quarters. The fairest way to the reader, however, will be for me to tellit without further comment.Gottfried Plattner is, in spite of his name, a free-born Englishman. His father was an Alsatianwho came to England in the Sixties, married a respectable English girl of unexceptionableantecedents, and died, after a wholesome and uneventful life (devoted, I understand, chiefly to thelaying of parquet flooring), in 1887. Gottfried's age is seven-and-twenty. He is, by virtue of hisheritage of three languages, Modern Languages Master in a small private school in the South ofEngland. To the casual observer he is singularly like any other Modern Languages Master in anyother small private school. His costume is neither very costly nor very fashionable, but, on the otherhand, it is not markedly cheap or shabby; his complexion, like his height and his bearing, isinconspicuous. You would notice, perhaps, that, like the majority of people, his face was notabsolutely symmetrical, his right eye a little larger than the left, and his jaw a trifle heavier on theright side. If you, as an ordinary careless person, were to bare his chest and feel his heart beating, you would probably find it quite like the heart of anyone else. But here you and the trained observerwould part company. If you found his heart quite ordinary, the trained observer would find it quiteotherwise. And once the thing was pointed out to you, you too would perceive the peculiarity easilyenough. It is that Gottfried's heart beats on the right side of his bod