Aug 22, 2026 · 4 hr 42 min · 12 segments
"Exchange of Souls" by Barry Pain delves into the haunting interplay between the living and the supernatural, exploring the depths of human experience and the mysteries that lie beyond death. This…
CHAPTER ONE i met daniel myas first in the winter of nineteen o five at hamilton's house in paris hamilton married a french woman and they lived in paris for the greater part of the year they were both terribly musical and musicians of many nationalities came to the house conversation on the days when madame received was tryingly polyglot for a plain englishman like myself as often happens at a first meeting one received an impression which was in part erroneous and in part short of the truth until he spoke to me i thought that myus was a frenchman his necktie was aggressively french it was bulgy and droopy and black silk he used a little gesture he had been speaking french to my hostess and with a perfection that in an englishman was almost unpatriotic but he spoke english to me and as only an englishman can ever hope to speak it it was not only a question of a perfect accent he knew the latest phrases of the society in which he was moving his talk with me was principally on the subject of the paris restaurants SEEMED TO HAVE MADE A special study of the art of dining and as a result of the experimental work he had slightly sacrificed his figure he gave me the impression that i had much to learn he was rather under the medium height and powerfully built his eye was vivacious and his expression kindly i noticed his hands particularly they were rather too white and well shaped just as i was leaving i had a few words with my hostess about him madame was always amusing but not always accurate she told me that i had been talking to a great savant no he was not always so sweet-tempered as he appeared for example he always swore at his manicurist but then he sent her sweets from rumplemeyer's to make up for it if he interested me would i not meet him at dinner there on the following wednesday it further appeared that somebody with a name like a tropical disease would be playing the cello i accepted and in this way began an acquaintance which i wished that i had never made I SAY THAT DELIBERATELY.
I LIKED MIAS.
I HOPE THAT THIS STORY WILL SHOW THAT WHEN HE BECAME MY FRIEND I ACCEPTED THE DUTIES OF FRIENDSHIP.
BUT HE LED ME INTO A TRACK WHERE I WAS MAZED AND LOST.
IN THE COURSE OF THE NEXT MONTH I SAW MIAS FREQUENTLY.
he was generally interesting and sometimes astounding one day he happened to speak with a flash of that temper which madame had led me to expect of the extreme narrow-mindedness of medical men well you are a medical man yourself aren't you oh yes he said as a matter of fact i am an m d of london and at one time had a practice a beastly practice in a beastly somersetshire village but as soon as i was in a position to give it up i did so and that was two years ago i came into some money on my father's death i see i said and as soon as you became independent your interest in medical science ceased goodness no you might almost say that was when it began it is that which has kept me wandering round the foreign hospitals for the last two years research is absolutely lovely work As a rule, it leads to nothing.
When it does lead to anything, you get punished for it.
You think you have found out something, you send a communication to the scientific press, and you metaphorically get your head bashed for your pains by your distinguished and learned colleagues.
But don't try to look as if you were interested in science.
You can't be, you know.
You belong to the leisured classes.
come along and we will lunch at lodoyan's if i belong to the leisured classes that is more my misfortune than my fault i'll tell you all about that one of these days what was your line of research and who jumped on you somebody or other on the lancet i should imagine from the style and knowledge displayed that the office boy is allowed to do a little reviewing in his spare time well well it's a lesson to me never show children or fools half-finished work there's no better proverb than that HE WAS BY WAY OF MAKING A JOKE OF IT, BUT IT WAS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT IN REALITY HE WAS VERY SORE ABOUT IT, AND FOR THIS REASON I DID NOT PRESS HIM FURTHER ON THE SUBJECT.
IT WAS MY LAST DAY IN PARIS, AND AS WE WERE SMOKING THE POST-LUNCHEON CIGARETTE, MYAS ASKED ME WHEN WE COULD MEET AGAIN.
DON'T KNOW.
SOON, I HOPE.
DO YOU EVER COME TO LONDON? of course everybody does i am not quite sure but i think my work will send me there in the spring we arranged that he should come to see me then at my little flat in st james's place and by that time he said i may be able to answer you more explicitly about my work quite likely i said SO FAR, OF COURSE, HE HAD NOT ANSWERED ME AT ALL.
THE DAY AFTER MY RETURN TO LONDON, I HAPPENED TO MEET AT THE CLUB AN OLD FRIEND OF MINE, DR. HABIDEN.
HE IS A MIGHTY PHYSICIAN, WITH THE RIGHT TO PUT A DECORATION ON HIS EVENING COAT ON SUITABLE OCCASIONS.
I ASKED HIM IF BY ANY CHANCE HE KNEW A DR. MYAS.
"'DANIEL MYAS?' THAT'S HIM, I SAID, WITH THE USUAL DISREGARD OF GRAMMAR.
YES, I KNOW OF HIM.
AS A STUDENT HE DID RATHER BRILLIANTLY.
GOT A RESIDENT APPOINTMENT AT HIS HOSPITAL.
QUARRELLED WITH EVERYBODY ABOUT EVERYTHING, AND HAD TO GO.
THEN HE BOUGHT HIMSELF A PRACTICE, AND THAT WAS HOW I CAME ACROSS HIM.
HE BROUGHT A PATIENT UP FROM SOMERSET SHEER TO SEE ME.
don't mind telling you that he was a devilish difficult case and i found that my ass had diagnosed it correctly and treated it correctly did the patient recover no died but that's got nothing to do with it he impressed me at the time as a very able man quite beyond the run of the ordinary general practitioner He's given up practice and taken up research now, and he's gone absolutely off the lines.
You should see the kind of stuff that he's been writing.
A ghoulish business, I call it.
Ghoulish? How do you mean? What is it he does? Dr.
Daniel Myers is making a special investigation of the moment of death.
You understand? he makes observations of dying people when the thing is practically over and a decent man would go away down swoops myas with his ophthalmoscope and his electrocardiograph and all the rest of his bag of tricks like a scientific vulture i should suppose he's watched more deaths than any man living does his work abroad principally And if the truth's told, he has tried some rum-funny experiments, too, things that would never be tolerated in any hospital this side of the channel.
He didn't tell me that he was interested in death, and I should have said he was much more interested in his dinner.
In fact, he didn't impress me as a ghoul at all.
oh i don't say he's a ghoul in ordinary life he probably wouldn't talk shop to you it's the man's work that is ghoulish i thought that science had declared all research to be good and that in the sacred cause of truth nothing was to be considered horrible or disgusting yes that may be so if the research is directed to any useful end BUT WHAT GOOD DO YOU SUPPOSE MYAS IS DOING? HE IS SIMPLY WASTING TIME.
WE KNOW WHAT LIFE IS AND WHAT DEATH IS.
DO WE? I ASKED.
I KNEW THE QUESTION WOULD IRRITATE DR. HABEDEN, AND IT DID.
IF YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO LURE ME INTO ONE OF YOUR PROFITLESS METAPHYSICAL DISCUSSIONS, YOU'RE MISTAKEN, MY FRIEND.
The medical man knows when life ends and death begins, and in the case of a patient who has passed remedial aid, that is all he needs to know.
There is plenty of good work to be done, and as Mias has the time and the means, he might just as well devote himself to it.
What is the etiology of disseminated sclerosis? What's the morbid anatomy of paralysis agitans? THAT'S THE KIND OF THING HE OUGHT TO BE TELLING US.
CANCER ISN'T SETTLED YET.
I COULD NAME FIFTY THINGS THAT MIGHT EMPLOY HIM USEFULLY.
HE PREFERS TO WORRY THE LAST MOMENTS OF POOR DEVILS FOR WHOM NEITHER HE NOR ANYBODY ELSE CAN DO ANYTHING.
IT'S SHEER PERVERSITY, AND I HATE TO SEE A MAN WITH HIS ABILITIES SO MUCH MISLED." "'Well,' I said, "'Mias will be coming to town in the spring, and I shall be seeing him.
Shall I tell him what you think about him?' "'Do.
Mind, it won't be any news to him.
He's been wrapped over the knuckles already.
But I suppose he has some respect for my opinion, since he brought a patient to me, and I dare say he will believe that I am well disposed towards him.' Very well, I said.
I'll tell him, and it's my belief that it won't make a pin's head of difference to him.
Oh, that's very likely, grunted Dr. Hobbiton, and went on up to the billiard room.
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CHAPTER ONE i met daniel myas first in the winter of nineteen o five at hamilton's house in paris hamilton married a french woman and they lived in paris for the greater part of the year they were both terribly musical and musicians of many nationalities came to the house conversation on the days when madame received was tryingly polyglot for a plain englishman like myself as often happens at a first meeting one received an impression which was in part erroneous and in part short of the truth until he spoke to me i thought that myus was a frenchman his necktie was aggressively french it was bulgy and droopy and black silk he used a little gesture he had been speaking french to my hostess and with a perfection that in an englishman was almost unpatriotic but he spoke english to me and as only an englishman can ever hope to speak it it was not only a question of a perfect accent he knew the latest phrases of the society in which he was moving his talk with me was principally on the subject of the paris restaurants SEEMED TO HAVE MADE A special study of the art of dining and as a result of the experimental work he had slightly sacrificed his figure he gave me the impression that i had much to learn he was rather under the medium height and powerfully built his eye was vivacious and his expression kindly i noticed his hands particularly they were rather too white and well shaped just as i was leaving i had a few words with my hostess about him madame was always amusing but not always accurate she told me that i had been talking to a great savant no he was not always so sweet-tempered as he appeared for example he always swore at his manicurist but then he sent her sweets from rumplemeyer's to make up for it if he interested me would i not meet him at dinner there on the following wednesday it further appeared that somebody with a name like a tropical disease would be playing the cello i accepted and in this way began an acquaintance which i wished that i had never made I SAY THAT DELIBERATELY.
I LIKED MIAS.
I HOPE THAT THIS STORY WILL SHOW THAT WHEN HE BECAME MY FRIEND I ACCEPTED THE DUTIES OF FRIENDSHIP.
BUT HE LED ME INTO A TRACK WHERE I WAS MAZED AND LOST.
IN THE COURSE OF THE NEXT MONTH I SAW MIAS FREQUENTLY.
he was generally interesting and sometimes astounding one day he happened to speak with a flash of that temper which madame had led me to expect of the extreme narrow-mindedness of medical men well you are a medical man yourself aren't you oh yes he said as a matter of fact i am an m d of london and at one time had a practice a beastly practice in a beastly somersetshire village but as soon as i was in a position to give it up i did so and that was two years ago i came into some money on my father's death i see i said and as soon as you became independent your interest in medical science ceased goodness no you might almost say that was when it began it is that which has kept me wandering round the foreign hospitals for the last two years research is absolutely lovely work As a rule, it leads to nothing.
When it does lead to anything, you get punished for it.
You think you have found out something, you send a communication to the scientific press, and you metaphorically get your head bashed for your pains by your distinguished and learned colleagues.
But don't try to look as if you were interested in science.
You can't be, you know.
You belong to the leisured classes.
come along and we will lunch at lodoyan's if i belong to the leisured classes that is more my misfortune than my fault i'll tell you all about that one of these days what was your line of research and who jumped on you somebody or other on the lancet i should imagine from the style and knowledge displayed that the office boy is allowed to do a little reviewing in his spare time well well it's a lesson to me never show children or fools half-finished work there's no better proverb than that HE WAS BY WAY OF MAKING A JOKE OF IT, BUT IT WAS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT IN REALITY HE WAS VERY SORE ABOUT IT, AND FOR THIS REASON I DID NOT PRESS HIM FURTHER ON THE SUBJECT.
IT WAS MY LAST DAY IN PARIS, AND AS WE WERE SMOKING THE POST-LUNCHEON CIGARETTE, MYAS ASKED ME WHEN WE COULD MEET AGAIN.
DON'T KNOW.
SOON, I HOPE.
DO YOU EVER COME TO LONDON? of course everybody does i am not quite sure but i think my work will send me there in the spring we arranged that he should come to see me then at my little flat in st james's place and by that time he said i may be able to answer you more explicitly about my work quite likely i said SO FAR, OF COURSE, HE HAD NOT ANSWERED ME AT ALL.
THE DAY AFTER MY RETURN TO LONDON, I HAPPENED TO MEET AT THE CLUB AN OLD FRIEND OF MINE, DR. HABIDEN.
HE IS A MIGHTY PHYSICIAN, WITH THE RIGHT TO PUT A DECORATION ON HIS EVENING COAT ON SUITABLE OCCASIONS.
I ASKED HIM IF BY ANY CHANCE HE KNEW A DR. MYAS.
"'DANIEL MYAS?' THAT'S HIM, I SAID, WITH THE USUAL DISREGARD OF GRAMMAR.
YES, I KNOW OF HIM.
AS A STUDENT HE DID RATHER BRILLIANTLY.
GOT A RESIDENT APPOINTMENT AT HIS HOSPITAL.
QUARRELLED WITH EVERYBODY ABOUT EVERYTHING, AND HAD TO GO.
THEN HE BOUGHT HIMSELF A PRACTICE, AND THAT WAS HOW I CAME ACROSS HIM.
HE BROUGHT A PATIENT UP FROM SOMERSET SHEER TO SEE ME.
don't mind telling you that he was a devilish difficult case and i found that my ass had diagnosed it correctly and treated it correctly did the patient recover no died but that's got nothing to do with it he impressed me at the time as a very able man quite beyond the run of the ordinary general practitioner He's given up practice and taken up research now, and he's gone absolutely off the lines.
You should see the kind of stuff that he's been writing.
A ghoulish business, I call it.
Ghoulish? How do you mean? What is it he does? Dr.
Daniel Myers is making a special investigation of the moment of death.
You understand? he makes observations of dying people when the thing is practically over and a decent man would go away down swoops myas with his ophthalmoscope and his electrocardiograph and all the rest of his bag of tricks like a scientific vulture i should suppose he's watched more deaths than any man living does his work abroad principally And if the truth's told, he has tried some rum-funny experiments, too, things that would never be tolerated in any hospital this side of the channel.
He didn't tell me that he was interested in death, and I should have said he was much more interested in his dinner.
In fact, he didn't impress me as a ghoul at all.
oh i don't say he's a ghoul in ordinary life he probably wouldn't talk shop to you it's the man's work that is ghoulish i thought that science had declared all research to be good and that in the sacred cause of truth nothing was to be considered horrible or disgusting yes that may be so if the research is directed to any useful end BUT WHAT GOOD DO YOU SUPPOSE MYAS IS DOING? HE IS SIMPLY WASTING TIME.
WE KNOW WHAT LIFE IS AND WHAT DEATH IS.
DO WE? I ASKED.
I KNEW THE QUESTION WOULD IRRITATE DR. HABEDEN, AND IT DID.
IF YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO LURE ME INTO ONE OF YOUR PROFITLESS METAPHYSICAL DISCUSSIONS, YOU'RE MISTAKEN, MY FRIEND.
The medical man knows when life ends and death begins, and in the case of a patient who has passed remedial aid, that is all he needs to know.
There is plenty of good work to be done, and as Mias has the time and the means, he might just as well devote himself to it.
What is the etiology of disseminated sclerosis? What's the morbid anatomy of paralysis agitans? THAT'S THE KIND OF THING HE OUGHT TO BE TELLING US.
CANCER ISN'T SETTLED YET.
I COULD NAME FIFTY THINGS THAT MIGHT EMPLOY HIM USEFULLY.
HE PREFERS TO WORRY THE LAST MOMENTS OF POOR DEVILS FOR WHOM NEITHER HE NOR ANYBODY ELSE CAN DO ANYTHING.
IT'S SHEER PERVERSITY, AND I HATE TO SEE A MAN WITH HIS ABILITIES SO MUCH MISLED." "'Well,' I said, "'Mias will be coming to town in the spring, and I shall be seeing him.
Shall I tell him what you think about him?' "'Do.
Mind, it won't be any news to him.
He's been wrapped over the knuckles already.
But I suppose he has some respect for my opinion, since he brought a patient to me, and I dare say he will believe that I am well disposed towards him.' Very well, I said.
I'll tell him, and it's my belief that it won't make a pin's head of difference to him.
Oh, that's very likely, grunted Dr. Hobbiton, and went on up to the billiard room.
