There was absolutely every element necessary to explain Frank's remarks during his delirium; he was a religiously-minded boy, poisoned by a toxin and treated by the anti-toxin.

What in the world could be expected but that he should rave in the most fantastic way, and utter every mad conception and idea that his subjective self contained.

As for that absurd fancy of the doctor himself, as well as of his servant that there was "something queer" in the room--the more he thought of it, the less he valued it.

Obviously it was the result of a peculiar combination of psychological conditions, just as psychological conditions were themselves the result of an obscure combination of toxin--or anti-toxin--forces.
Yet for all that, argue as one may, the fact remained that this dry and rather misanthropic scientist was affected in an astonishing manner by Frank's personality.

(It will appear later on in Frank's history that the effect was more or less permanent.) Still more remarkable to my mind was the very strong affection that Frank conceived for the doctor.