Mikhail Bulgakov. The Fateful Eggs -
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Professor Portugalov and docents Ivanov and Borngart he anatomised and
microscopised fowls in search of the plague bacillus and even wrote a
brochure in the space of only three evenings, entitled "On Changes in the
Liver of Fowls Attacked by Plague".
Persikov worked without great enthusiasm in the fowl field, and
understandably so since his head was full of something quite different, the
main and most important thing, from which the fowl catastrophe had diverted
him, i.e., the red ray. Undermining his already overtaxed health by stealing
time from sleeping and eating, sometimes not returning to Prechistenka but
dozing on the oilskin divan in his room at the Institute, Persikov spent
night after night working with the chamber and the microscope.
By the end of July the commotion had abated somewhat The renamed
commission began to work along normal lines, .and Persikov resumed his
interrupted studies. The microscopes were loaded with new specimens, and
fish- and frog-spawn matured in the chamber at incredible speed. Specially
ordered lenses were delivered from Konigsberg by aeroplane, and in the last
few days of July, under Ivanov's supervision, mechanics installed two big
new chambers, in which the beam was as broad as a cigarette packet at its
base and a whole metre wide at the other end. Persikov rubbed his hands
happily and began to prepare some mysterious and complex experiments. First
of all, he came to some agreement with the People's Commissar of Education
by phone, and the receiver promised him the most willing assistance of all
kinds, then Persikov had a word with Comrade Ptakha-Porosyuk, head of the
Supreme Commission's Animal Husbandry Department. Persikov met with the most
cordial attention form Ptakha-Porosyuk with respect to a large order from
abroad for Professor Persikov. Ptakha-Porosyuk said on the phone that he