Professor's Pattern

The University of Michigan was proud of Professor Malcolm Herman Soule, 54. A precise and brilliant scholar, an exacting teacher (students called him "The Hatchetman of the Freshman Medical School"), he was also one of the nation's top bacteriologists.

For 32 years, Professor Soule's life proceeded in perfect pattern. But under the pattern, all was not well with Professor Soule. Early this summer, the university began to get anonymous phone calls, charging Dr. Soule with stealing. Investigation proved the charges true. As head of the bacteriology department, Dr. Soule had access to special funds to pay the expenses of visiting educators. He had been getting money for visitors who had never come.

The total theft amounted to $487.05. Dr. Soule never explained why he took it. He repaid in full, then tried to resign; The university was inclined to mercy, but the regents favored justice; they decided to call in the county prosecutor.

Three hours after he got the news, Dr. Soule wrote a note to his family (his two daughters were abroad), begging forgiveness for the disgrace he had brought. Then, after asking his wife what time dinner would be, he went down to the basement, filled a hypodermic with snake venom and gave himself eight injections. When his wife came to call him for dinner, she found him lying on the floor. "Don't call a doctor," he whispered, "there's no antidote to this poison." In a few minutes, he was dead.

He had been suffering from cancer for the last twelve years. An autopsy showed that his sinuses were riddled with infection --"a condition," said the doctor, "that would have caused a great deal of continual pain."

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