[There's a brief pause during which a series of small inkblots quickly appear on the page.]

I'd imagine not. And I'm not sure it would ever be a possibility, unless you were to attempt to determine how and when the immune system failed, but that would all be [pause] based on guesswork, wouldn't it? And if you would be able to lend me those texts, I would appreciate it quite a lot! Thank-you very much for your consideration, Herbert!

Do people really think offering compensation to research subjects is unethical? That is very odd. I think that offering compensation would be the polite thing to do. At the very least, you'd want to send them a gift or a card.