report which he sends to Professer Nemur, which affirms that "the surgery-and-injection techniques develooped by (the Professor) and Dr. Strauss must be viewed as having little or no practical applicability, at the present time, to the increase of human intelligence".  In laymen's terms, the experiment is a failure (August 26).

When Charlie returns to work immediately after his operation, his co-workers treat him as they always have, some with an attitude of friendly comaraderie and others with cruel teasing.  Charlie has not yet noticed any changes as a result of the surgery and has been instructed not to tell anyone what the operation was supposed to do, so his co-workers do not know that anything might be different about his intelligence.  When it soon becomes evident that Charlie is becoming smarter and better able to understand the various facets of his job, his boss is amazed, and gives him more responsibility.  As he begins to advance in the business, however, some of his workmates, specifically those who had treated him so badly before, react with jealousy and resentment (March 21, April 1).

The "Algernon-Gordon effect" is a term used by Charlie in his most advanced state of intelligence. The term refers to the mouse Algernon and himself who were used as guinea pigs in an experiment led by professor Nemur and Doctor Strauss to determine whether intelligence could be artificially enhanced. Charlie discovered that there was a direct correlation between the degree by which a subject's intelligence had been increased and the time it took for that intelligence to dissipate - the "Algernon-Gordon effect."

Charlie determined that:

"Artificially-induced intelligence deteriorates at a rate of time directly proportional to the quantity of the increase."

This means that the more intelligence you gained, the faster it would disappear.

The intelligence gained could not be sustained and the subject would regress to its/his original state. Charlie discovers through his studies that that was exactly what had happened to Algernon and that there is a flaw in Professor Nemur's hypothesis. Charlie is certain that he will regress to his previous condition. In this regard then, the experiment can be deemed a failure.

There are no clear references to which techniques were specifically employed to enhance Charlie's or Agernon's IQ. Only operations or injections are mentioned. One can assume that the procedures were performed on certain parts of the subjects' brains, but since no detail is provided, one cannot be entirely sure.

The operation that Charlie receives does not actually involve donating any brain cells from the mouse Algernon. In fact, the nature of the operation is purposefully left vague.

Keep in mind that the original story was written in 1958, at a time when medical science was significantly less advanced than it is now. Like many science fiction stories, the "science" is often left up to the imagination. All we know as readers is that Algernon's intelligence has increased dramatically as a result of the surgery, and we are asked to accept that fact on its face without any sort of explanation.

Fortunately, the story itself is so compelling that it really doesn't matter if we know exactly how the operation increases intelligence. The real focus, as in any good piece of literature, is on character development. When Charlie's intelligence increases, he does not become correspondingly happier. In fact, he struggles with the newfound knowledge that the world is a much more cynical and unkind place than he knew before, when he did not have the intelligence to see peoples' real motives and the effects of their actions.