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"'Dr. Heidegger's Experiment'" is a short story by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, about a scientist who claims to have been sent water from the Fountain of Youth. It was first published in the collection ''Twice-Told Tales'' in 1837.

Contents

Plot summary

Major themes

Plot summary

Calling four old friends together, he shows them its power by dipping a 55 year old rose blossom in the water. It is renewed, as though it had just been plucked. A dying butterfly is later similarly refreshed.
The four friends drink the water, and are restored to their former youthfulness. They begin frolicking together, and during their playfulness, knock over the pitcher which contained the water of youth. The doctor implores them to stop, and as he does so, the rose is seen to wither. It becomes "as dry and fragile as when the doctor had first thrown it into the vase". The water's effect was not permanent, and the four people return to their previous aged state. They resolve to go to Florida and drink, morning, noon and night, from the Fountain of Youth. Dr. Heidegger, after observing these effects on his friends, is content to live life out the way nature wants it to be. He sees the harmful effects of the water and acknowledges the fact that science isn't always good. Many of the characters return to their old foolish ways as they were younger.

Major themes

Like Rappacini's Daughter and The Birthmark, this story features a sinister scientist. Here the subjects of the experiment live, but they end less happily than when they began. They may have gulped the water of the Fountain of Youth or it may be a delusion; the story is equivocal. Either way the result of the drink is flirtation, quarrel, and the waste of precious time. The story can also be compared to Feathertop and My Kinsman, Major Molineux in its scepticism about much human endeavour.