flowers for Algernon

chapter 25: progress report 22 may 23-29

PROGRESS REPORT 13

May 23 It happened today. Algernon bit me. I visited the lab to see him as
I do occasionally, and when I took him out of his cage, he snapped at my
hand. I put him back and watched him for a while. He was unusually dis-
turbed and vicious.

May 24 Burt, who is in charge of the experimental animals, tells me that
Algernon is changing. He is less co-operative; he refuses to run the maze any
more; general motivation has decreased. And he hasn't been eating. Everyone
is upset about what this may mean.

May 25 They've been feeding Algernon, who now refuses to work the shift-
ing-lock problem. Everyone identifies me with Algernon. In a way we're both
the first of our kind. They're all pretending that Algernon's behavior is not
necessarily significant for me. But it's hard to hide the fact that some of the
other animals who were used in this experiment are showing strange behav-
lOr.
Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur have asked me not to come to the lab any
more. I know what they're thinking but I can't accept it. I am going ahead with
my plans to carry their research forward. With all due respect to both of these
fine scientists, I am well aware of their limitations. If there is an answer, I'll
have to find it out for myself. Suddenly, time has become very important to
me.

May 29 I have been given a lab of my own and permission to go ahead with
the research. I'm on to something. Working day and night. I've had a cot
moved into the lab. Most of my writing time is spent on the notes which I keep
in a separate folder, but from time to time I feel it necessary to put down my
moods and my thoughts out of sheer habit. I find the calculus of intelligence to be a fascinating study. Here is the place for the application of all the knowledge I have acquired. In a sense it's the problem I've been concerned with all my life.