The Resurrectionist The Lost Work of Dr. - By E. B. Hudspeth Page 0,21

knew what horrible things were available to them, they would take comfort in their own suffering.

We are living creatures, and within us is more than we know; the seed of life and death, together. It’s sewn into our bodies at birth; it can live and die without us. I have seen it and nurtured it and fought and defended it. I have sacrificed and bled and now I, too, will perish for it, because of it––I know not how to destroy it. I can hear her, that sound––I can hear the screaming––soaring in the darkness, searching for me. I can hear Hell calling my name. Elise, my dear wife! I resolved to save her. I chose to give her a great gift, an ancient past resurrected. She was a descendant of a powerful species, the Fury. Elise is now no longer the same woman, nor is she the one in the cracked body of burned flesh. She has emerged, she has awoken like the cicada.

I learned many things, I wield a mighty sword now. I have taken her, as a worm, an opium-addicted wretch, writhing in a scorched body; listen to me Bernard, I write only truths. She now pounds the air with her wings and bellows Hell’s song in hunger. I baptized her; with my knife, I saved her … again, I saved her.

The last stone I unturned in my quest was the tombstone … Come quickly.

—S. Black.

Bernard never returned to his wife, Emma, in New York.

IN 1908, FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF Gray’s Anatomy, DR. SPENCER BLACK ARRANGED FOR THE PUBLICATION OF HIS Codex Extinct Animalia. JUST SIX COPIES WERE PRINTED BEFORE DR. BLACK WITHDREW THE PROJECT AND DISAPPEARED; THE BOOK WAS NEVER DISTRIBUTED, AND THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF MEDICAL ANTIQUITIES HAS THE ONLY KNOWN EXISTING COPY. WHY DR. BLACK STOPPED PRINTING SO ABRUPTLY (AND THEN VANISHED) REMAINS UNKNOWN.

THE BOOK IS AN ANATOMICAL REFERENCE MANUAL, A COMMON ENDEAVOR AMONG NATURALISTS AT THE TIME. IT HIGHLIGHTS THE ANATOMIES OF ELEVEN DIFFERENT SPECIES THAT ARE, AS INDICATED BY THE TITLE PAGE, PROPOSED TO BE EXTINCT. AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH CHAPTER, DR. BLACK DISCUSSES KEY POINTS OF INTEREST REGARDING THE RESPECTIVE SPECIES. ALTHOUGH HE SOMETIMES MENTIONS FINDING SPECIMENS (OR THE PARTIAL REMAINS OF A SPECIMEN) IN HIS TRAVELS, IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT BLACK FABRICATED ALL THESE CREATURES BY HAND. THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE SPECIMENS REMAINS UNKNOWN; MOST WERE LIKELY DESTROYED, BUT IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOME ARE IN THE COLLECTIONS OF AS-YET-UNKNOWN INDIVIDUALS.

AT TIMES DR. BLACK’S WRITING IS SCATTERED AND DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND. THERE IS A CERTAIN HYSTERICAL TONE TO HIS DESCRIPTIONS THAT WAS CHARACTERISTIC OF BLACK IN HIS LATER YEARS.

THE

CODEX EXTINCT

ANIMALIA

A STUDY OF THE LESSER KNOWN

SPECIES OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

DESIGNED AS A REFERENCE FOR

ALL PRACTITIONERS IN SCIENCE,

MEDICINE, AND PHILOSOPHY

BY

SPENCER EDWARD BLACK, M.D.

WITH

comprehensive illustrations and explanatory

texts regarding the musculature and skeletal

systems: additional viscera of select animals

NEW YORK

SOTSKY AND SON

DR. BLACK CHOOSES THE SPHINX FOR THE FIRST CHAPTER, POSSIBLY AS A REFERENCE TO HER FAMED RIDDLE. FAILURE TO ANSWER THE RIDDLE CORRECTLY RESULTED IN INSTANT DEATH. THERE IS, HOWEVER, NOTHING ENIGMATIC ABOUT BLACK’S INTENTIONS. KNOWING THAT MOST OF HIS SPECIMENS WOULD LIKELY BE DESTROYED OR HIDDEN AWAY IN PRIVATE COLLECTIONS, HE CREATED THE CODEX AS A LEGACY OF HIS RESEARCH—AND, PERHAPS, AS A MAP FOR FUTURE SCIENTISTS TO FOLLOW.

IN ADDITION TO A BRIEF INTRODUCTION, EACH CHAPTER FEATURES A STYLIZED DRAWING––A VISION OF WHAT BLACK THOUGHT THE CREATURES MAY HAVE LOOKED LIKE.

* * *

SPHINX ALATUS

* * *

* * *

KINGDOM Animalia

PHYLUM Vertebrata

CLASS Echidnæ

ORDER Praesidium

FAMILY Felidæ

GENUS Sphinx

SPECIES Sphinx alatus

MANY DETAILS REGARDING the heraldry of the sphinx are still unknown. These creatures varied widely throughout the African continent. In Egypt, there are great statues of this animal—the sphinx sol, the protector and scourge of Ra, the sun god. Sphinxes are shown bearing a ram’s head (a criosphinx) or a goat’s head. These species are typically depicted without wings; I suspect that, like many flightless birds, the sphinx lost its need for flight because of geographical isolation. This evolution likely occurred before the animal’s arrival in Egypt or Africa; however, I cannot determine whence it originated.

The famed sphinx of Thebes appears strikingly similar to the specimen in my record. Though few in number, the species had a developed human mind with an advanced intellect; they were more than likely fierce and successful predators.

THE BELIEF IN THE SIREN OR MERMAID WAS NOT UNCOMMON IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. MANY NATURALISTS AND TAXONOMISTS MAINTAINED THAT SUCH A CREATURE WAS PLAUSIBLE. DR. BLACK HIMSELF STATES THAT THE OCEANS