The Little Black Bag [novelette]
by C. M. Kornbluth
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I've read the 1950 'The Little Black Bag' in other collections, such as The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. I watched 'Rod Serling's Night Gallery,' so I probably saw the second episode of season one that adapted it, but I don't remember it.
Old Dr. Bayard Full lost his right to practice in 1941 because he was bilking patients. He's now a broken-down alcoholic sneaking a bottle of cheap wine to his apartment. A nasty neighbor dog causes him to drop and break the bottle. Teresa, a three-year-old girl, picks up and plays with one of the pieces of broken glass, cutting herself. Dr. Full promises himself he'll take [medical] care of her later as he goes to his filthy apartment.
The scene cuts to the future. It's probably the 24th century, show more given what's stamped on a medical instrument in that little black bag in the title. This is a future where people of subnormal intelligence have outbred the people of normal and supra normal intelligence for 20 generations. Dr. Hemingway is a stupid general practitioner. Good thing that his medical bag has been made as idiot proof as possible. He's chatting with Walter Gillis, Ph.D., a stupid physicist. The ersatz physicists are watched over by Mike, a brilliant one who pretends to be a mere bottle washer. Mike gives Dr. Gillis the information he needs to create a time machine. Alas, Dr. Gillis uses it on Dr. Hemingway's bag, even though he knows it's a one-way trip (yes, stupid). Hemingway doesn't report its loss to Al (another genius doing is social stint in guiding the stupid masses), the clerk who tracks the medical bags these stupid doctors keep losing.
The bag turns up in Dr. Full's filthy apartment. He plans to pawn it, but a frantic mother urges him to come to save her very sick child. The patient is Teresa, now dying of an infection she got from the cut with the dirty glass. Dr. Full cures her with the help of the medical bag. A blond girl, probably 18, has told Teresa's other about Dr. Full. Angie is astonished that little Teresa is cured, but shrewdly guesses that the bag doesn't belong to Dr. Full.
They're unable to pawn the bag because the pawn shop owners don't recognize the medical instruments in it. Dr. Full uses the bag to become a real doctor again. Angie goes to charm school and becomes his receptionist/assistant.
Edna Flannery, staff writer for 'The Herald' newspaper, is writing aa series of articles exposing medical quacks and faith healers. By the time she checks out Dr. Full, he has a spotlessly clean Sanitarium on East 89th Street. We learn about her experience through reading her draft that copy editor Piper is going through. Edna was cured of a non life-threatening problem and declares that Dr. Full is no quack.
Dr. Full is altruistically thinking of donating the bag to the College of Surgeons when Angie brings a rich patient in for cosmetic surgery on her throat. After Mrs. Coleman leaves, pleased, Dr. Full tells money-grubbing Angie his plan. She objects.
What Angie does next gets the attention of Al in the future and he takes care of the problem.
My biggest problem with this story is that the despicable practice of forced sterilizations was still going on in 1950. Even if the brilliant people of centuries in the future didn't want to do something so unethical, you can't tell me that they couldn't have come up with removeable contraceptive implants. show less
Old Dr. Bayard Full lost his right to practice in 1941 because he was bilking patients. He's now a broken-down alcoholic sneaking a bottle of cheap wine to his apartment. A nasty neighbor dog causes him to drop and break the bottle. Teresa, a three-year-old girl, picks up and plays with one of the pieces of broken glass, cutting herself. Dr. Full promises himself he'll take [medical] care of her later as he goes to his filthy apartment.
The scene cuts to the future. It's probably the 24th century, show more given what's stamped on a medical instrument in that little black bag in the title. This is a future where people of subnormal intelligence have outbred the people of normal and supra normal intelligence for 20 generations. Dr. Hemingway is a stupid general practitioner. Good thing that his medical bag has been made as idiot proof as possible. He's chatting with Walter Gillis, Ph.D., a stupid physicist. The ersatz physicists are watched over by Mike, a brilliant one who pretends to be a mere bottle washer. Mike gives Dr. Gillis the information he needs to create a time machine. Alas, Dr. Gillis uses it on Dr. Hemingway's bag, even though he knows it's a one-way trip (yes, stupid). Hemingway doesn't report its loss to Al (another genius doing is social stint in guiding the stupid masses), the clerk who tracks the medical bags these stupid doctors keep losing.
The bag turns up in Dr. Full's filthy apartment. He plans to pawn it, but a frantic mother urges him to come to save her very sick child. The patient is Teresa, now dying of an infection she got from the cut with the dirty glass. Dr. Full cures her with the help of the medical bag. A blond girl, probably 18, has told Teresa's other about Dr. Full. Angie is astonished that little Teresa is cured, but shrewdly guesses that the bag doesn't belong to Dr. Full.
They're unable to pawn the bag because the pawn shop owners don't recognize the medical instruments in it. Dr. Full uses the bag to become a real doctor again. Angie goes to charm school and becomes his receptionist/assistant.
Edna Flannery, staff writer for 'The Herald' newspaper, is writing aa series of articles exposing medical quacks and faith healers. By the time she checks out Dr. Full, he has a spotlessly clean Sanitarium on East 89th Street. We learn about her experience through reading her draft that copy editor Piper is going through. Edna was cured of a non life-threatening problem and declares that Dr. Full is no quack.
Dr. Full is altruistically thinking of donating the bag to the College of Surgeons when Angie brings a rich patient in for cosmetic surgery on her throat. After Mrs. Coleman leaves, pleased, Dr. Full tells money-grubbing Angie his plan. She objects.
What Angie does next gets the attention of Al in the future and he takes care of the problem.
My biggest problem with this story is that the despicable practice of forced sterilizations was still going on in 1950. Even if the brilliant people of centuries in the future didn't want to do something so unethical, you can't tell me that they couldn't have come up with removeable contraceptive implants. show less
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Is contained in
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time by Robert Silverberg
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume I, IIA, IIB, the Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time (Boxed Set, in Slipcase) by Robert Silverberg (indirect)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Little Black Bag [novelette]
- Original publication date
- 1950
- People/Characters
- Dr. Bayard Full (old, alcoholic has-been who finds Hemingway's bag); John Hemingway (doctor centuries in the future who lost his medical bag | stupid); Walter Gillis (Ph.D. | stupid physicist | sent Hemingway's bag to the 20th century with time machine); Mike (a brilliant physicist pretending to be a bottle washer to keep an eye on the stupid physicists); Teresa (3 yr-old girl | first patient cured by Hemingway's bag); Angie Aquella (avaricious young blonde who blackmails DR. Full into being his assistant) (show all 12); Uncle (owner of the first pawn shop Dr. Full and Angie try to pawn Hemingway's bag); Edna Flannery ('Herald' staff writer doing a series on medical quacks & faith healers); Piper ('Herald' copy editor); Mrs. Coleman (rich fat woman Angie brings in for cosmetic surgery); Al (brilliant future scientist doing his social duty tracking those lost medical bags); small, black, mean neighborhood dog (indirect cause of Teresa's deadly infection)
- Important places
- the alley next to the apartment building where Dr. Full lives; Dr. Full's filthy apartment; The room centuries in the future where Drs Hemingway and Gillis are talking; Little Teresa and family's apartment; the offices of 'The Herald' newspaper; New York, New York, USA (probable setting) (show all 8); Dr. Full's Sanitarium, East 89th Street, New York, New York, USA; Al's office centuries in the future
- First words
- Old Dr. Full felt the winter in his bones as he limped down the alley.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)In the few minutes it took the police, summoned by the shrieking Mrs. Coleman, to arrive, the instruments had become crusted with rust, and the flasks which had held vascular glue and clumps of pink, rubbery alveoli and spare grey cells and coils of receptor nerves held only black slime, and from them when opened gushed the foul gases of decomposition.
- Disambiguation notice
- This is the short fiction/novelette. Please do not combine with other versions and/or collections.
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