d
think I had gone completely crazy. Imagine my surprise and gratification
on receiving an answer by return mail to the effect that he also had
been getting an increasing number of patients suffering with the same
identical symptoms as my own. Furthermore, upon exchanging records we
_did_ find that in many cases patients three thousand miles apart had
been stricken simultaneously--

LATHAM. Just a minute. I would like to know how you define
"simultaneous."

NIEMAND. We say an attack is simultaneous when one occurred on the east
coast, for example, not earlier or later than five minutes of an attack
on the west coast. That is about as close as you can hope to time a
subjective effect of this nature. And now another fact emerged which
gave us another clue.

LATHAM. Which was?

NIEMAND. In every case of a simultaneous attack the Sun was shining at
both New York and California.

LATHAM. You mean if it was cloudy--

NIEMAND. No, no. The weather had nothing to do with it. I mean the Sun
had to be above the horizon at both places. A person might undergo an
attack soon after sunrise in New York but there would be no
corresponding record of an attack in California where it was still dark.
Conversely, a person might be stricken late in the afternoon in
California without a corresponding attack in New York where the Sun had
set. Dr. Hillyard and I had been searching desperately for a clue. We
had both noticed that the attacks occurred only during the daylight
hours but this had not seemed especially significant. Here we had
evidence pointing directly to the source of trouble. It must have some
connection with the Sun.

LATHAM. That must have had you badly puzzled at first.

NIEMAND. It certainly did. It looked as if we were headed back to the
Middle Ages when astrology and medicine went hand in hand. But since it
was our only lead we had no other choice but to follow it regardless of
the consequences. Here luck played somewhat of a part, for Hillyard
happened to have a contact that proved invaluable to us. Several years
before Hillyard had gotten to know a young astrophysicist, Henry
Middletown, who had come to him suffering from a severe case of myositis
in the arms and shoulders. Hillyard had been able to effect a complete
cure for which the boy was very grateful, and they had kept up a
desultory correspondence. Middletown was now specializing in radio
astronomy at the government's new solar observatory on Turtle Back