[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Mad Scientist"

[Rich Lowenthal]

Another fairly early citation:

"He answered all his letters in long hand, the college records were kept 
in the same way, and such a thing as a telephone was a wild dream of 
some mad scientist who imagined also that some day men would fly, and 
light their houses with something better than gas or kerosene lamps."

>From the Proceedings of the Semi-Centennial of Vanderbilt University 
(1925).


------ Original Message ------
>From "Jonathan Lighter" 
<00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date 8/4/2026 7:22:56 AM
Subject Re: Further Antedating of "Mad Scientist"

>I wonder if the "mad medical scientist" recalled in 1877 was Viktor
>Frankenstein himself. If not, who?  (There may, of course, have been
>imitators in now-lost dime novels and penny dreadfuls.)
>
>Hawthorne's Rappacini was a mad botanist, though not a threat to the
>planet. And Hoffman's Spalanzini, not a scientist, engineered Olympia, the
>world's first robotic girlfriend.  (Cf.
>https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrycollins/2025/01/08/this-could-be-your-ai-robot-girlfriend-for-175000/
>  )
>
>JL
>
>On Tue, Aug 4, 2026 at 5:26 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
>00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
>>  Great citation for "mad medical scientist", John. Nice work everyone.
>>  John and JL mentioned H.G. Wells's character Dr. Moreau. Here is 1919
>>  citation in which Dr. Moreau is called a "mad biologist".
>>
>>  Date: October 19, 1919
>>  Newspaper: The Sun
>>  Newspaper Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
>>  Article: Man Half-Soled
>>  Quote Page 3, Column 2
>>  Database: Newspapers.com
>>  https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sun-madbiologist/203085306/
>>
>>  [Begin excerpt]
>>  In the dear dead days beyond recall, before Mr. H. G. Wells became a
>>  prophet, he described the island of Dr. Moreau, where a mad biologist
>>  created numberless monsters by transposing the parts of ordinary
>>  animals.
>>  [End excerpt]
>>
>>  Garson
>>
>>  On Tue, Aug 4, 2026 at 4:56 AM John M. Baker
>>  <0000192d2eeb9639-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>>  >
>>  >  This is not the pulp fiction version of a mad scientist that Jonathan
>>  was looking for, but it does appear to me to be the modern term:  "Yes, it
>>  is an experiment.  But it will prove to be an experiment that will cost the
>>  very life of the Republican party.  It will be like the experiment of the
>>  mad medical scientist of whom I read in boyhood.  He killed a human body to
>>  have a vivisection, and to test whether by putting the various parts
>>  together, he could not vivificate it."
>>  > The Stark County Democrat (Canton, Ohio), June 21, 1877, at 1 col. 4
>>  (Newspapers.com).
>>  >
>>  > John Baker
>>
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>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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