“Thus, in the first place these creatures were difficult of access; in the second place, they readily contracted tuberculosis, even in that warm, dry climate; and in the third place their ferocity rendered them more formidable to approach than any tiger in its lair.  I may add here that this predisposition to pulmonary disease is (and this I have definitely established) a characteristic of all mammalian hybrids.

“Nevertheless, my studies were by no means unfruitful, since they resulted in a triumphant vindication of my theory, which, contrary to that universally received and more closely allied to the ‘exploded’ Mendel’s Law, ascribed the appearance of such monsters not to any strict physiological process but to a hitherto unclassified law of embryology which I had hoped would one day take its place in science under my name.

“Armed with the results of my Abyssinian inquiry, I next proceeded to Syria; for among certain desert tribes I hoped to find further evidence to support my theory.  In short, in the Arabic tradition of the jackal-man (which is allied to the medieval and universal belief in the were-wolf or loup-garou) and in the Indian myth of the woman who, possessing an ordinary human form by day, assumes that of a tigress by night, I thought I detected a profound truth.

“Since my life-work is destroyed, I am egotist enough to desire that credit for it should not accrue to another.  I do not propose, therefore, more than lightly to touch upon the Damar Greefe Law, but I may say that in its essentials it is this: 

“Such strange hybrids do actually occur periodically and in rare cases survive; but their animal proclivities which are physically demonstrable, and the possession of certain animal attributes (as the furry body of the cynocephalyte, the claws and teeth of the jackal-man, etc.), are physical reflections of a mental process taking place in the female parent.”

He glared at me wildly, as if anticipating contradiction, but Gatton and I remaining silent: 

“There is no physical association,” he continued, “between the hybrid and that creature whose qualities and peculiarities he seemingly inherits.  I have proved by a long series of elaborate experiments that a true hybrid of this description is a physiological impossibility.  But that a false hybrid such as I have indicated may appear is a fact which does not rest solely upon my studies amongst the Amharun, nor upon my subsequent inquiries throughout Assyria, Somaliland and the middle valleys of the Yellow River.”

He paused, and suddenly turning a glance of the hawk-like eyes upon me: 

“As an explorer of the Dark Continent, Mr. Addison,” he said, “and also, if I mistake not, something of an Orientalist, the significance of this itinerary may possibly be apparent to you.  But I waste time: