Madame Bovary - Penn State University

Madame Bovary“That will do. Take her away,” cried Charles, who was sobbingin the alcove.tionless, uttered great sighs; and Monsieur Canivet, alwayswas running hither and thither in the room. Homais, mo-Then the symptoms ceased for a moment; she seemed less retaining his self-command, nevertheless began to feel uneasy.agitated; and at every insignificant word, at every respirationa little more easy, he regained hope. At last, when Canivet “The devil! yet she has been purged, and from the momentcame in, he threw himself into his arms.that the cause ceases—”“Ah! it is you. Thanks! You are good! But she is better. See! “The effect must cease,” said Homais, “that is evident.”look at her.”“Oh, save her!” cried Bovary.His colleague was by no means of this opinion, and, as he And, without listening to the chemist, who was still venturingthe hypothesis, “It is perhaps a salutary paroxysm,”said of himself, “never beating about the bush,” he prescribed,an emetic in order to empty the stomach completely. Canivet was about to administer some theriac, when they heardShe soon began vomiting blood. Her lips became drawn. the cracking of a whip; all the windows rattled, and a postchaisedrawn by three horses abreast, up to their ears in mud,Her limbs were convulsed, her whole body covered withbrown spots, and her pulse slipped beneath the fingers like a drove at a gallop round the corner of the market. It was DoctorLariviere.stretched thread, like a harp-string nearly breaking.After this she began to scream horribly. She cursed the poison,railed at it, and implored it to be quick, and thrust away motion. Bovary raised his hands; Canivet stopped short; andThe apparition of a god would not have caused more com-with her stiffened arms everything that Charles, in more agony Homais pulled off his skull-cap long before the doctor hadthan herself, tried to make her drink. He stood up, his handkerchiefto his lips, with a rattling sound in his throat, weep-He belonged to that great school of surgery begotten ofcome in.ing, and choked by sobs that shook his whole body. Felicite Bichat, to that generation, now extinct, of philosophical272