Legend has it that members
of the Donner Party who survived the long winter did so only because they «made meat
of the
dead bodies of their
companions,» as the California Star reported in 1847.
Victor, having deduced that his new
companion isn't really a hunchback, cures the latter
of his actual physical ailment and provides him with new clothes, a new name (Igor, that
of Victor's generally - absent roommate), and a new job in assisting Victor with his experiments to re-animate
dead body tissue via electricity.