Madame Bovary - Penn State University

Madame Bovary“If you were like me,” said Charles, “constantly obliged to made some observations) falls in winter to 4 degrees Centigradeat the outside, which gives us 24 degrees Reaumur asbe in the saddle”—“But,” Leon went on, addressing himself to Madame Bovary, the maximum, or otherwise 54 degrees Fahrenheit (English“nothing, it seems to me, is more pleasant—when one can,” scale), not more. And, as a matter of fact, we are shelteredhe added.from the north winds by the forest of Argueil on the one“Moreover,” said the druggist, “the practice of medicine is side, from the west winds by the St. Jean range on the other;not very hard work in our part of the world, for the state of and this heat, moreover, which, on account of the aqueousour roads allows us the use of gigs, and generally, as the farmersare prosperous, they pay pretty well. We have, medically cattle in the fields, which, as you know, exhale much ammo-vapours given off by the river and the considerable number ofspeaking, besides the ordinary cases of enteritis, bronchitis, nia, that is to say, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen (no, nitrogenand hydrogen alone), and which sucking up into itselfbilious affections, etc., now and then a few intermittent feversat harvest-time; but on the whole, little of a serious nature,nothing special to note, unless it be a great deal of scrofula, ent emanations, unites them into a stack, so to say, and com-the humus from the ground, mixing together all those differ-due, no doubt, to the deplorable hygienic conditions of our bining with the electricity diffused through the atmosphere,peasant dwellings. Ah! you will find many prejudices to combat,Monsieur Bovary, much obstinacy of routine, with which tries, engender insalubrious miasmata—this heat, I say, findswhen there is any, might in the long run, as in tropical coun-all the efforts of your science will daily come into collision; itself perfectly tempered on the side whence it comes, or ratherfor people still have recourse to novenas, to relics, to the priest, whence it should come—that is to say, the southern side—byrather than come straight to the doctor of the chemist. The the south-eastern winds, which, having cooled themselvesclimate, however, is not, truth to tell, bad, and we even have passing over the Seine, reach us sometimes all at once likea few nonagenarians in our parish. The thermometer (I have breezes from Russia.”70