the
ingestion of the food. Perhaps Vaucorbeil was not mistaken. A physician,
after all, ought to have some knowledge of this! And a feeling of
remorse took possession of Pecuchet! He was afraid lest he might turn
out a homicide.

For prudence' sake they sent the hunchback away. But his mother cried a
great deal at his losing the breakfast, not to speak of the infliction
of having made them come every day from Barneval to Chavignolles.

Foureau calmed down, and Gouy recovered his strength. At the present
moment the cure was certain. A success like this emboldened Pecuchet.

"If we studied obstetrics with the aid of one of these manikins----"

"Enough of manikins!"

"There are half-bodies made with skin invented for the use of students
of midwifery. It seems to me that I could turn over the foetus!"

But Bouvard was tired of medicine.

"The springs of life are hidden from us, the ailments too numerous, the
remedies problematical. No reasonable definitions are to be found in the
authors of health, disease, diathesis, or even pus."

However, all this reading had disturbed their brains.

Bouvard, whenever he caught a cold, imagined he was getting inflammation
of the lungs. When leeches did not abate a stitch in the side, he had
recourse to a blister, whose action affected the kidneys. Then he
fancied he had an attack of stone.

Pecuchet caught lumbago while lopping the elm trees, and vomited after
his dinner--a circumstance which frightened him very much. Then,
noticing that his colour was rather yellow, suspected a liver complaint,
and asked himself, "Have I pains?" and ended by having them.

Mutually becoming afflicted, they looked at their tongues, felt each
other's pulses, made a change as to the use of mineral waters, purged
themselves--and dreaded cold, heat, wind, rain, flies, and principally
currents of air.

Pecuchet imagined that taking snuff was fatal. Besides, sneezing
sometimes causes the rupture of an aneurism; and so he gave up the
snuff-box altogether. From force of habit he would thrust his fingers
into it, then suddenly become conscious of his imprudence.

As black coffee shakes the nerves, Bouvard wished to give up his half
cup; but he used to fall asleep after his meals, and was afraid when he
woke up, for prolonged sleep is a foreboding of apoplexy.

Their ideal was Cornaro, that Venetian gentleman who by the regulation
of his diet attained to an extreme old age. Without actually imitati