Aging

QUOTE: "When he was finished he mixed several powders in three or four goblets, adding water to them and stirring them. These I was ordered to drink. The last was particularly foul. 'She requires the Stabilization serums,' said the physician. The guard nodded. 'They are administered in four shots,' said the physician. He nodded to a heavy, beamed, diagonal platform in a corner of the room. The guard took me and threw me, belly down, on the platform, fastening my wrists over my head and widely apart, in leather wrist straps. He similarly secured my ankles. The physician was busying himself with fluids and a syringe before a shelf in another part of the room, laden with vials. I screamed. The shot was painful. It was entered in the small of my back, over the left hip." Captive of Gor page 93.

"The Stabilization Serums, which are regarded as the right of all human beings. be they civilized or barbarian, friend or enemy, are administered in a series of injections, and the effect is, incredibly. an eventual, gradual transformation of certain genetic structures, resulting in indefinite cell replacement without pattern deterioration. These genetic alterations, moreover. are commonly capable of being transmitted. For example. though I received the series of injections when first I came to Gor many years ago I hail been told by Physicians that they might, in my case, have been unnecessary, for I was the child of parents who, though of Earth, had been of Gor. and had received the serums. But different human beings respond differently to the Stabilization Serums. and the serums are more effective with some than with others. With some the effect lasts indefinitely. with others it wears off after but a few hundred years, with some the effect does not occur at all. with others. Tragically. the effect is not to stabilize the pattern but to hasten its degeneration. The odds. however. are in the favor of the recipient. and there are few Goreans who, if it seems they need the Serum's, do not avail themselves of them." Assassin of Gor pages 29-30.

"At one time, said he, centuries ago, men of my Caste claimed age was incurable. Others did not accept this and continued to work. The result was the Stabilization Serums." Assassin of Gor page 266

"Strangely, though it had now been six years since I left counter-earth, I can discover no signs of aging or physical alteration in my appearance. I have puzzled over this, trying to connect it with the mysterious letter, dated in the seventeenth century, ostensibly by my father, which I received in the blue envelope. Perhaps the serums of the Caste of Physicians so skilled on Gor, have something to do with this, but I cannot tell." Tarnsman of Gor pages 218-9

"I had spent eight days in the slave pens, waiting the night of the sale. I had been examined medically, in detail, and had had administered to me, while I lay bound, helplessly, a series of painful shots, the purpose of which I did not understand. They were called the stabilization serums. We were also kept under harsh discipline, close confinement and given slave training". I well recalled the lesson which was constantly enforced upon us: "The master is all. Please him fully." "What is the meaning of the stabilization serums?" I had asked Sucha. She had kissed me. "They will keep you much as you are," she said, "young and beautiful." I had looked at her, startled. "The masters, and the free, of course, if there is need of it, you must understand, are also afforded serums of stabilization," she said adding, smiling, "though they are administered to them I suppose, with somewhat more respect than they are to a slave "If there is need of it?" I asked. "Yes " she said "Do some not require the serum'?" I asked. "Some, said Sucha, "but these individuals are rare, and are the offspring of individuals who have had the serums." "Why is this?" I asked. "I do not know," said Sucha "Men differ." The matter, I supposed, was a function of genetic subtleties, and the nature of different gametes. The serums of stabilization effected, it seemed, the genetic codes, perhaps altering or neutralizing certain messages of deterioration, providing, I supposed, processes in which an exchange of materials could take place while tissue and cell patterns remained relatively constant. Ageing was a physical process and, as such, was susceptible to alteration by physical means. All physical processes are theoretically, reversible. Entropy itself is presumably a moment in a cosmic rhythm. The physicians of Gor, it seemed, had addressed themselves to the conquest conquest of what had hitherto been a universal disease called on Gor the drying and withering disease, called on Earth, ageing. Generations, of intensive research and experimentation had taken place. At last a few physicians drawing upon the accumulated data of hundreds of investigators, had achieved the breakthrough, devising the first primitive stabilization serums, later to be developed and exquisitely refined. I had stood in the rage startled, trembling. "Why are serums of such value given to slaves?" I asked. "Are they of such value?" she asked "Yes," she said, 'I suppose so." She took them for granted, much as the humans of Earth might take for granted routine inoculations. She was unfamiliar with ageing. The alternative to the serums was not truly clear to her. "Why should slaves not be given the serums?" she asked. "Do the masters not want their slaves healthy and better able to serve them?" Slave Girl of Gor pages 282

"You were English , I said. Yes, he said, smiling. Brought here on the Voyages of Acquisition? Of Course, he said." ..."How long ago? I asked. He began to try to stuff the tobacco into the bowl of the pipe. Given the gravitational alteration this was no easy task. Do you know of these things? asked Parp, without looking up. I know of the Stabilization Serums, I said. Parp glanced up from the pipe, holding his thumb over the bowl to prevent the tobacco from floating out of it, and smiled. Three centuries, he said, and then returned his attention to the pipe." Priest Kings of Gor page 288

"Torvald, said he, sleeps in the Torvaldsberg, and has done so for a thousand years. He waits to be wakened. When his land needs him, he shall awake. He shall then lead us in battle. Again he will lead the men of the north." ..."What is your true name? I had inquired. He looked at me, and smiled. It was strange what he said. My name, he said, is Torvald. Then he had turned away, I watched him return to the mountain. I thought of the stabilization serums, My name is Torvald, he had said." Marauders of Gor pages 232 & 294

"From Sarm's point of view of course your utilization there was simply to curtail the spread of the Empire of Ar, for we prefer humans to dwell in isolated communities. It is better for observing their variations, from the scientific point of view, and it is safer for us if they remain disunited, for being rational they might develop a science, and being subrational it might be dangerous for us and for themselves if they did so. That is the reason then for your limitations of their weaponry and technology? Of Course, said Misk, but we have allowed them to develop in many areas--in medicine, for example, where something approximating the Stabilization Serums has been independently developed. What is that? I asked. You have surely not failed to notice, said Misk, that though you came to the Counter-Earth more than seven years ago you have undergone no significant physical alteration in that time. I have noticed, I said, and I wondered on this. Of course, said Misk, their serums are not as effective as ours and sometimes do not function, and sometimes the effect wears off after only a few hundred years." Priest Kings of Gor pages 123-4

"You spoke of knowing the Cabots for four hundred years, I said. Yes, said Misk, and your father who is a brave and noble man, has served us upon occasion, though he dealt only, unknowingly, with Implanted Ones. He first came to Gor more than six hundred years ago. Impossible! I cried. Not with the stabilization serums, remarked Misk." Priest Kings of Gor page 126

"In the first house of my slavery, I said, I was given a series of injections. I am curious about them. Were they inoculations against disease? I know those you mean, he said. No, they were the stabilization serums. We give them even to slaves. What are they? I asked. You do not know? he asked. No, I said. They are a discovery of the caste of physicians, he said. They work their effects on the body. What is their purpose? I asked. Is there anything in particular which strikes you generally, statistically, about the population of Gor? he asked. Their vitality, their health, their youth, I said. Those are consequences of the stabilization serums, he said. I do not understand, I said. You will retain your youth and beauty, curvaceous slave, he said. That is the will of masters. I do not understand, I said frightened. Ageing, he said, is a physical process, like any other. It is, accordingly, accessible to physical influences. To be sure, it is a subtle and complex process. It took a thousand years to develop the stabilization serums. Our physicians regarded ageing as a disease, the drying, withering disease, and so attacked it as a disease. They did not regard it as, say a curse, or a punishment, or something inalterable or inexplicable, say, assume sort of destined, implacable fatality. No. They regarded it as a physical problem, susceptible to physical approaches. Some five hundred years ago, they developed the first stabilization serums. How could I ever pay for such a thing! I gasped. There is no question of payment, he said. They are given to you as an animal, a slave. Master, I whispered, awed. Do not fret, he said. In the case of a woman from earth, like yourself, they are not free. Master? I asked. He took my collar in both hands, and moved it in such a way that I could feel how sturdily, and obdurately, it was locked on my neck. For a woman such as you, he said, their price is the collar." Dancer of Gor pages 472-3

Ant Bites

QUOTE: "Ants, some two hundred yards in advance of the column, approach the meat. Their antennae were lifted. They had seemed tense, excited. They were some two inches in length. Their bite, and that of their fellows, is vicious and extremely painful, but it is not poisonous." Explorers of Gor page 401

Bazi Plague

QUOTE: "The Physician would check the health of the crew and slaves, Plague some years ago had broken out in Bazi, to the North, which port had been closed by the merchants for two years. In some eighteen months it had burned itself out, moving south and eastward. Bazi had not yet recovered from the economic blow." Explorers of Gor page 117.

"I knew that I had not been in a plague area. Too, the Bazi Plague had burned itself out years ago. No cases to my knowledge had been reported for months." Explorers of Gor page 136. "I with the crew members submitted to the examination of the Physician. He did little more than look into our eyes and examine our forearms. But our eyes were not yellowed nor was there sign of the broken pustules in our flesh." Explorers of Gor page 118

"The girl looked at the Physician with horror, tears in her eyes. But he completed her examination, looking into her eyes and examining the interior of her thighs her belly and the interior of her forearms, for marks." Explorers of Gor page 120.

" It is the plague! she cried. It is the Plague! I walked over to a mirror. I ran my tongue over my lips they seemed dry. The whites of my eyes clearly were yellow. I rolled up the sleeve of my tunic and saw there on the flesh of the forearm like black blisters open, erupted, a scattering of pustules." Explorers of Gor page 135.

"I simply did not feel ill. I was slightly drunk and heated from the paga, but I did not believe myself fevered. My pulse and heartbeat, and respiration, seemed normal. I did not have difficulty catching my breath. I was neither dizzy nor nauseous, and my vision was clear. My worst physical symptoms were the irritation about my eyes and the genuinely nasty itchiness of my skin. I felt like tearing it off with my own fingernails." Explorers of Gor page 136.

"We are going to test you for pox, he said. The girl groaned. It was my hope that none on board the Clouds of Telnus had carried the pox. It is transmitted by the bites of lice. The pox had appeared in Bazi some four years ago. The port had been closed for two years by the merchants. It had burned itself out moving south and eastward in some eighteen months. Oddly enough some were immune to the pox, and with others it had only a temporary, debilitating effect. With others it was swift, lethal and horrifying. Those who had survived the pox would presumably live to procreate themselves, on the whole presumably transmitting their immunity to their offspring. Slaves who contracted the pox were often summarily slain. It was thought that the slaughter of slaves had had its role to play in the containment of the pox in the vicinity of Bazi." Slave Girl of Gor page 326

"She, as a slave knows that if she should contract the disease she would in all probability be summarily slain." Explorers of Gor page 134.

"My pursuit of you was foiled," I said, "by the results of the drug you placed in my paga." "The drug," said Shaba, "was a simple combination of sajel, a simple postulant, and gieron, an unusual allergen. Mixed they produce a facsimile of the superficial symptoms of Bazi plague." "I could have been killed," I said, "by the mob." I did not think many would care to approach you," said Shaba. "It was not your intention then that I be killed?" I asked. "Certainly not," said Shaba. "if that was all that was desired, kanda might have been introduced into your drink as easily as sajel and gieron" "I simply did not feel ill. I was slightly drunk and heated from the paga, but I did not believe myself fevered. My pulse and heartbeat, and respiration, seemed normal. I did not have difficulty catching my breath. I was neither dizzy nor nauseous, and my vision was clear. My worst physical symptoms were the irritation about my eyes and the genuinely nasty itchiness of my skin. I felt like tearing it off with my own fingernails." Explorers of Gor page 136

Bleeding, Serious

QUOTE: "I sprang to my feet and ran to the door. Flaminius! I cried. Flaminius! A slave running past stopped on my command. Fetch Flaminius! I cried. He must bring blood! Sura must live! The slave hurtled down the hall. Flaminius came in but a few moments. With him he carried the apparatus of his craft, and a canister of fluid." Assassin of Gor page 380

Darkosis

QUOTE: "Suddenly to my horror, I saw the quarry of the larl, It was a human being, moving with surprising alacrity over the rough ground. To my astonishment, I saw it wore the yellow cerements of the sufferer of Dar Kosis, that virulent, incurable, wasting disease of Gor." Tarnsman of Gor page 149.

"He was now bent and crooked, like a broken blasted shrub in his yellow shroudlike robe. The hood concealed his face. Pointing to its shadowed concealed face it whispered "The Holy Disease." That was the literal translation of Dar Kosis 'the Holy Disease' or equivalent the Sacred Affliction. The disease is named that because it is regarded as being holy to the Priest Kings, and those who suffer from it are regarded as consecrated to the Priest Kings. Accordingly it is regarded as heresy to shed their blood. On the other hand, the Afflicted, as they are called, have little to fear from their fellow men. Their disease is so highly contagious, so invariably devastating in its effects, and so feared on the planet that even the boldest of outlaws gives them a wide berth. Accordingly, the afflicted enjoy a large amount of freedom of movement on Gor. They are of course, warned to stay away from the habitations of men, and if they approach too closely, they are sometimes stoned. Oddly enough, casuistically, stoning the Afflicted is not regarded as a violation of the Priest Kings supposed injunction against shedding their blood. As an act of charity, Initiates have arranged at various places Dar Kosis pits where the Afflicted may voluntarily imprison themselves to be fed with food hurled downward from the backs of passing tarns. Once in a Dar Kosis pit the Afflicted are not allowed to depart. I was glad that it was night and that the hood of the man was drawn, for I had no desire to look on what pieces of flesh might still cling to his skull." Tarnsman of Gor page 150-1

"No, said Flaminius smiling. No, he took another swallow. I thought to find, he said, an immunization against Dar Kosis. Dar Kosis is incurable, I said. At one time, he said centuries ago men of my Caste claimed age was incurable. Others did not accept this and continued to work. The result was the Stabilization Serums. Dar Kosis or the Holy Disease or Sacred Affliction is a virulent wasting disease of Gor. Those afflicted with it commonly spoken of simply as the afflicted ones may not enter into normal society They wander the country side in shroudlike yellow rags beating a wooden clapping device to warn men from their path; some of them volunteer to be placed in Dar Kosis pits several of which are in the vicinity of Ar, where they are fed and given drink, and are of course isolated; the disease is extremely contagious. those who contract the disease are regarded by law as dead." Assassin of Gor page 265-6.

"I had, he said, Shortly before the fire developed a strain of urts resistant to the Dar-Kosis organism; a serum cultured from their blood was injected in other animals, which subsequently we were unable to infect." Assassin of Gor page 267.

"I (Flaminius) and others worked secretly in the Cylinder of Physicians. We devoted our time, those ahn in the day in which we could work to study, research and experiment. Unfortunately for spite and for gold word of our work was brought the High Initiate, by a minor Physician discharged from our staff for incompetence. The Cylinder of Initiates demanded that the High Council of the Caste of Physicians put an end to our work, not only that it be discontinued but that our results to that date be destroyed. The Physicians, I am pleased to say stood with us. There is little love lost between Physicians and Initiates. Before the next passage hand, he said. Armed men broke into the Cylinder of Physicians; the floors we worked on were burned; the Cylinder itself was seriously damaged; our work our records, the animals we used were all destroyed; several of my staff were slain, others driven away." Assassin of Gor page 267.

"I (Flaminius) had, he said shortly before the fire developed a strain of urts resistant to the Dar Kosis organism; a serum cultured from their blood was injected in other animals, which subsequently we were unable to infect. It was tentative, only a beginning, but I had hoped, I had hoped very much." Assassin of Gor page 267.

"At the games on the second of En Kara in the Stadium of blades, said he. I saw the High Initiate Complicius Serenus. So?, I said. He does not know it, said Flaminius nor will he learn for perhaps a year learn. What?, I asked, That he is dying of Dar-Kosis, he said" Assassin of Gor page 268-9.

"Dar-Kosis" I said, is regarded as an instrument of Priest Kings, used to smite those who displease them. Another myth of Initiates, said Flaminius unpleasantly. "But how do you know that?" I queried. "I do not care," said Flaminius, "if it is true or not. I am a Physician." Assassin of Gor page 266.

General Reminders

QUOTE: "She opened her eyes, and shook her head. What is this? she said. Capture scent, I said."..."Shall I hold again the vial beneath her nose? I asked. Soaked in a rag and scarf and held over the nose and mouth of a female it can render her unconscious in five Ihn. She squirmed wildly for an Ihn or two, and then sluggishly, and then falls limp. It is sometimes used by tarnsmen; it is often used by slavers. Anesthetic dart, too are sometimes used in the taking of female; these maybe flung, or entered into the body by hand; they take effect in about forty Ihn; she awakens often, in a slave kennel." Marauders of Gor page 115-116

"I had been forced, sitting in the courtyard, my head back and nose held, to swallow a draft of water, into which a reddish powder had been mixed. I had shortly thereafter lost consciousness." .... "In the courtyard below, I said, I was drugged. It was done by tassa powder, she said. It was tasteless, and effective, I said. Slavers sometimes use it, she said. It is well for a girl not to drink with a strange man, she laughed. It shows up, of course, I said, in water. It is meant to be mixed with red wine, she said." Fighting Slave of Gor page 223-4

Hysteria

QUOTE: "They seem very quiet," I observed. 'We permit them," said Flaminius, deigning to offer a bit of explanation, "five Ahn of varied responses, depending on when they recover from the frobicain injection. Mostly this takes the form of hysterical weeping, threats, demands for explanation, screaming and such. They will also be allowed to express their distress for certain periods at stated times in the future." Assassin of Gor page 126

"The man with the thief's scar again emerged from the ship, this time with a syringe. He injected a tiny bit of serum into each girl, entering the needle in the girls back, on the left side between the hip and backbone, passing the needle each time into a small vial he held in his left hand."..."They will not awaken now, said the man with the Thief's scar, for better than an Ahn."..."We began to go up to the third level. They seem very quiet, I observed. We permit them, said Flaminius, deigning to offer a bit of an explanation, five Ahn of varied responses, depending on when they recover from the frobicain injection." Assassin of Gor pages 99 & 126

"Stand quietly, the judge warned her, or you will be forced to drink a sedative." Nomads of Gor page 121

Laxatives

QUOTE: "Some girls I have been told sometimes try to swallow small coins but this is foolish. The coin can be produced swiftly enough in such cases by emetics and laxatives." Dancer of Gor, pg 238

Med Kits

QUOTE: "The ointment will soon be absorbed, she said. "In a few minutes there will be no trace of it nor of the cuts." The Physicians of Treve, I said, have marvelous medicines. It is an ointment of Priest Kings, she said." Priest Kings of Gor page 64

"He touched the bloodied cut on my belly, where the branch had struck me. Then, with his hand, he lifted my head, turning it, looking at the cut on my cheek. We are not pleased, he said. I said nothing. Bring salve, he said. An ointment was brought, and he smeared it across the two cuts. It was odorless. To my surprise it seemed to be absorbed almost immediately. You must be careful, he said. Again I said nothing. You might have marked yourself, he said, or might have been blinded. He returned the ointment to another man. They are superficial, he told me, and will heal without trace." Captive of Gor page 29-30

Pregnancy

QUOTE: "I held the object before her, she regarded it with dismay. "I have already chewed sip root within the moon,' she said. 'Open your mouth,' I said. 'Yes, Master,' she said. I then thrust the object into her mouth. 'Chew it well,' I said, 'and swallow it, bit by bit.' She grimaced, at the barest taste of the object. 'Begin,' I told her. She began. 'Not so quickly,' I told her. 'More slowly. Very slowly. Very, very slowly. Savor it well.' She whimpered in obedience. She did not need the sip root, of course, for, as she had pointed out, she had had some within the moon, and indeed, the effect of sip root, in the raw state, in most women, is three or four moons. In the concentrated state, as in slave wine, developed by the caste of physicians, the effect is almost indefinite, usually requiring a releaser for its remission, usually administered, to a slave, in what is called the breeding wine, or the 'second wine'. When this is administered she usually knows that she has been selected for crossing with a handsome male slave." Blood Brothers of Gor page 319.

"This is not really wine, or an alcoholic beverage. It is called a slave wine I think for the amusement of the Masters. It is extremely bitter. One draught of the substance is reputed to last until the administration of an appropriate releaser. In spite of this belief however or perhaps in difference to tradition, lingering from earlier times, in which, it seems less reliable slave wines were available, doses of this foul stuff are usually administered to female slaves at regular intervals usually once or twice a year. Some girls rather cynical ones, I suspect speculate that the Masters give it to them more often than necessary just because they enjoy watching them down the terrible stuff." Dancer of Gor page 174.

"Slave wine is bitter intentionally so. Its effect lasts for more than a Gorean month. I did not wish the females to conceive. A female slave is taken off slave wine only when it is her Masters intention to breed her." Marauders of Gor pages 23-4.

"The active ingredient of breeding wine or second wine is a derivative of teslik." Blood Brothers of Gor page 320.

Salt Deprivation

QUOTE: "In the last days we had been denied salt. Our bodies were cruel with cramps and weakness. " Tribesmen of Gor page 236

Shock

QUOTE: "Sometimes, said Flaminius... shock cannot be so easily prevented. Indeed sometimes the lash itself drives the girl into shock. Then sedations and drugs are called for." Assassin of Gor page 128.