Zeritsky's Law
By ANN GRIFFITH
Illustrated by THORNE
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Science Fiction November 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Why bother building a time machine when there's
something much easier to find right in your own kitchen?
Somebody someday will make a study of the influence of animals onhistory. Although not as famous as Mrs. O'Leary's cow, Mrs. Graham'scat should certainly be included in any such study. It has now beendefinitely established that the experiences of this cat led to theidea of quick-frozen people, which, in turn, led to the passage ofZeritsky's Law.
We must go back to the files of the Los Angeles newspapers for 1950to find the story. In brief, a Mrs. Fred C. Graham missed her petcat on the same day that she put a good deal of food down in herhome deep-freeze unit. She suspected no connection between the twoevents. The cat was not to be found until six days later, when itsowner went to fetch something from the deep-freeze. Much as she lovedher pet, we may imagine that she was more horror than grief-strickenat her discovery. She lifted the little ice-encased body out of thedeep-freeze and set it on the floor. Then she managed to run as far asthe next door neighbor's house before fainting.
Mrs. Graham became hysterical after she was revived, and it was severalhours before she could be quieted enough to persuade anybody that shehadn't made up the whole thing. She prevailed upon her neighbor to goback to the house with her. In front of the deep-freeze they found asmall pool of water, and a wet cat, busily licking itself. The neighborsubsequently told reporters that the cat was concentrating its lickingon one of its hind legs, where some ice still remained, so that she,for one, believed the story.
A follow-up dispatch, published a week later, reported that the cat wasunharmed by the adventure. Further, Mrs. Graham was quoted as sayingthat the cat had had a large meal just before its disappearance; thatas soon after its rescue as it had dried itself off, it took a longnap, precisely as it always did after a meal; and that it was nothungry again until evening. It was clear from the accounts that thelife processes had been stopped dead in their tracks, and had, afterdefrosting, resumed at exactly the point where they left off.
Perhaps it is unfair to put all the responsibility on one lucklesscat. Had such a thing happened anywhere else in the country, it wouldhave been talked about, believed by a few, disbelieved by most, andforgotten. But as the historic kick of Mrs. O'Leary's cow achievedsignificance because of the time and place that it was delivered,so the falling of Mrs. Graham's cat into the deep-freeze becamesignificant because it occurred in Los Angeles. There, and probablyonly there, the event was anything but forgotten; the principles itrevealed became the basis of a hugely successful business.
How shall we regard the Zeritsky Brothers? As archvillains or pioneers?In support of the latter view, it must be admitted that the spiritof inquiry and the willingness to risk the unknown were indisputablytheirs. However, their pioneering—if we agree to call it that—was,equally indisputably, bound up with the quest for a fast