t
was brilliantly illuminated in order to forestall claustrophobia and
also to forestall too close a view into the black-lighted interior of
The Brain.

To Lee it was like a ride in an enormous Ferris Wheel fused with a
nightmarish dream wherein one shouts for help and nobody hears or seems
to understand: "... More than nine billion electronic tubes, more than
ten billion resistors, two billion capacitators, eight billion miles of
wires, etc., etc." He struggled trying to convey some idea of the
magnitude of The Brain. "Did you say _billion_ or did you say _million_
professor?" The senator from Michigan was busily scribbling notes.

"... It is the cerebral hemispheres which analyze and synthesize the
problems which are entered through the Apperception Centers in over a
million ideopulses per minute. Racing through the centers these form the
ideo-circuits...."

"I see, it's like a _typewriter_." That would be the senator from
Vermont.

"In some types of circuits the wires are so fine that skilled weavers of
Panama hats had to be brought in from Central America. Likewise from the
Pavlov Institute in Leningrad a layout for the circuits of 'conditioned
reflexes'...."

"I'm very much against that," the senator from Tennessee frowned. "All
those foreigners. I would have voted against that had the measure come
up in the House."

Lee felt the cold sweat of fear breaking out all over him, especially as
now, in the region of the telencephalon, with nothing but acres of
radioactive pyramidal cells around, when the senator from Connecticut in
audible and agitated whispers inquired whether there was a ladies'
powder room somewhere.

During the steep descent things went from bad to worse as the honorable
member from Kentucky discovered some interesting parallel between The
Brain and a coal mine he had previously seen and, as in between two of
The Brain's convolutions dedi-[A] woman from Connecticut went violently
sick....

In the "Brainwave's" cabin the great Scriven convulsed with laughter as
Lee narrated these things; Oona clapped her hands in delight: "Oh, how
wonderful; and do you remember how they solved the servant problem when
they saw those 'Gog and Magog' things?"

Yes, Lee remembered. His own conducted tour had been only the beginnings
of last nights nightmares of which there seemed to be no end....

Somewhat restored by black coffee at the communications center the
intrepid group had descended into those lowe