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Silenrieux, Herve. Herve Silenrieux was created by “Noelle Roger,” the pseudonym of Helene Pittard, and appeared in Le Nouvel Adam (1924).

Herve Silenrieux is a Superhuman. The famous Dr. Flecheyre is successor to Louis Pasteur at the Institute in Paris. He has saved thousands of lives with his groundbreaking transplant techniques. But his greatest project involves transplanting certain glands to stimulate the brain. This should create a new species of homo, one as far above sapiens as sapiens is above habilis. But every time Flecheyre performs this experiment on rabbits, they die, and when Flecherye’s son Rene has the experiment performed on him by a friend, Rene dies. Then a suicidal medical student, Herve Silenrieux, shoots himself in the head. Flecheyre puts the glands into Silenrieux’s brain, and the operation is a success.

On regaining consciousness Silenrieux is clearly a genius, and he quickly masters the sciences while also being devoted to Flecheyre. But Silenrieux is otherwise amoral, willing to kill a few patients if it will help him discover a cure for various illnesses. When Silenrieux wipes out all of Flecheyre’s patients, he dismisses Silenrieux, but also gives Silenrieux enough money to continue his practices elsewhere. Silenrieux goes into hiding, develops a death ray and an atomic earthquake maker, and when Flecheyre has Silenrieux committed to an asylum, he escapes. Silenrieux goes to the Netherlands, where he plans to set off an atomic explosion which will wipe out the human race. Flecheyre tracks him down, but the lead in one of Flecheyre’s bullets is detonated by Silenrieux’s forcefield, and the resulting atomic explosion kills both men.

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