Page 421 - madame-bovary

‘You would have done better,’ said the physician, ‘to in-
troduce your fingers into her throat.’
His colleague was silent, having just before privately re-
ceived a severe lecture about his emetic, so that this good
Canivet, so arrogant and so verbose at the time of the club-
foot, was to-day very modest. He smiled without ceasing in
an approving manner.
Homais dilated in Amphytrionic pride, and the affecting
thought of Bovary vaguely contributed to his pleasure by a
kind of egotistic reflex upon himself. Then the presence of
the doctor transported him. He displayed his erudition, cit-
ed pell-mell cantharides, upas, the manchineel, vipers.
‘I have even read that various persons have found them-
selves under toxicological symptoms, and, as it were,
thunderstricken by black-pudding that had been subjected
to a too vehement fumigation. At least, this was stated in
a very fine report drawn up by one of our pharmaceutical
chiefs, one of our masters, the illustrious Cadet de Gassi-
court!’
Madame Homais reappeared, carrying one of those
shaky machines that are heated with spirits of wine; for
Homais liked to make his coffee at table, having, moreover,
torrefied it, pulverised it, and mixed it himself.
‘Saccharum, doctor?’ said he, offering the sugar.
Then he had all his children brought down, anxious to
have the physician’s opinion on their constitutions.
At last Monsieur Lariviere was about to leave, when Ma-
dame Homais asked for a consultation about her husband.
He was making his blood too thick by going to sleep every

0 Madame Bovary