that
they hurt ... it's just that I guess I'm old-fashioned. I still feel
kinda 'creepy' about the whole business." Slightly embarrassed, he
paused and asked defensively, "Is that unusual?"

The doctor smiled openly now, "Not at all, not at all. Things have moved
pretty fast in the past few years. I suppose it takes people's emotional
reactions a while to catch up with developments that, logically, we
accept as matter of fact."

He pushed his chair back from the desk, "Maybe it's not too hard to
understand. Take 'fire' for example: Man lived in fear of fire for a
good many hundred-thousand years--and rightly so, because he hadn't
learned to control it. The principle's the same; First you learn to
protect yourself from a thing; then control it; and, eventually, we
learn to 'harness' it for a useful purpose." He gestured toward the
man's cigarette, "Even so, man still instinctively fears fire--even
while he uses it. In the case of tissue-regeneration, where the change
took place so rapidly, in just a generation or so, that instinctive fear
is even more understandable--although quite as unjustified, I assure
you."

The doctor stood up, indicating that the session was ending. While his
patient scrambled to his feet, hastily putting out his cigarette, the
physician came around the desk. He put his hand on the man's shoulder,
"Relax, take it easy--nothing to worry about. This is a wonderful age we
live in. Barring a really major accident, there's no reason why you
shouldn't live at least another seventy-five years. After all, that's a
very remarkable viral-complex we have doing your 'repair' work."

As they walked to the door, the man shook his head, "Guess you're right,
Doc. It's certainly done a good job so far, and I guess you specialists
know what you're doing, even if folks don't understand it."

At the door he paused and half turned to the doctor, "But say ...
something I meant to ask you. This 'stuff' ... er, this vaccine ...
where did it come from? Seems to me I heard somewhere that, way back
before you fellows got it 'tamed' it was something else--dangerous.
There was another name for it. Do you know what I mean?"

The doctor's hand tightened on the doorknob. "Yes, I know," he said
grimly, "but not many laymen remember. Just keep in mind what I told
you. With any of these things, the pattern is protection, then control,
then useful application." He turned to face his patient, "Back in the
days before we put i