THE OLD GOAT
BY CHARLES L. FONTENAY
It's been said that the soul is the
form that makes the body—which may
just possibly explain what happened
on that fatal day at Ivy College....
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, February 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Dr. Angstrom was known to his students and many of his colleagues onthe faculty as "The Old Goat." Very appropriate, that name. He had thedisposition of a goat with dyspepsia, he had the cold blue eyes of agoat, he had the waggling whiskers of a goat. Perhaps it's in memory ofDr. Angstrom that Ivy College has a goat for its mascot now.
Dr. Angstrom was even more goatish than usual that day last summer whenhalf a dozen top scientists in the field gathered to see his previewexperiment on matter transmission of a live animal. He had been workinghard for weeks on the transmitter and keeping up classes at the sametime, which did not improve his disposition. Besides, he had a realgoat for an experimental animal, and goats are notoriously hard on thenervous system.
This particular animal, at the moment the scientists entered, wasstraining at his rope, trying to get a mouthful of a tablecloth whichgraced a nearby table full of jars and retorts. Failing this, the goatexhibited that typical lack of discrimination in matters edible andbegan to chew on his rope.
I felt a little out of place among all these giant brains. My reasonfor being there was that I had been serving, during my college career,as sort of a factotum and fetch-and-carry man for Dr. Angstrom, andI was to take notes for him. I had acquired considerable affectionfor The Old Goat. Maybe that's one reason I hate to see his greatscientific work kept under wraps because people still insist it'sdangerous.
"I have proved to my own satisfaction that the matter transmitterworks," Dr. Angstrom told the assembled scientists. "I have made anumber of transmissions of inanimate matter. In theory, it should workjust as well for animate objects and I have invited you to be presentat the first test of this theory.
"I need not go into detail with you about the basic theory of mattertransmission. The transmitter itself picks up the atomic andelectronic 'image' of the object inside it, much as a televisionscanner picks up a scene, except that it is done in three dimensionsinstead of two. This is made possible by the four-dimensional elementwhich is the heart of the apparatus and was made available to usthrough recent intra-atomic research.
"The receiver picks up the image as a television receiver does, exceptagain in three dimensions. The matter is not duplicated because thetransmitter strips down the object within it as it transmits.
"Now the question that has been raised by some scientists about thetransmission of animate objects is whether the 'soul' or 'life force'can be transmitted. I consider this question ridiculous, and will proveit so. It is my contention that such 'life force' is not a thing apartfrom the physical shell."
The matter transmitter was a large closed cylinder on one side of theroom. The receiver was a similar cylinder on the other. Both wereraised slightly from the floor.
As sort of hors d'oeuvre, Dr. Angstrom transmitted a large chunk oflead across the room, then a glass jar. In each case, the object wasplaced in the transmitter and a moment later removed from the receiveracross the room. Th