Sganarelle. So much the better. Is the suffering very acute?

Géronte. Very acute.

Sganarelle. That is right. Does she go to … you know where?

Géronte. Yes.

Sganarelle. Freely?

Géronte. That I know nothing about.

Sganarelle. Is the matter healthy?

Géronte. I do not understand these things.

Sganarelle (turning to the patient). Give me your hand. (To Géronte.) The pulse tells me that your daughter is dumb.

Géronte. Sir, that is what is the matter with her; ah! yes, you have found it out at the first touch.

Sganarelle. Of course!

Jacqueline. See how he has guessed her complaint.

Sganarelle. We great physicians, we know matters at once. An ignoramus would have been nonplussed, and would have told you: it is this, that, or the other; but I hit the nail on the head from the very first, and I tell you that your daughter is dumb.

Géronte. Yes; but I should like you to tell me whence it arises.

Sganarelle. Nothing is easier; it arises from loss of speech.

Géronte. Very good. But the reason of her having lost her speech, pray?

Sganarelle. Our best authorities will tell you that it is because there is an impediment in the action of her tongue.

Géronte. But, once more, your opinion upon this impediment in the action of her tongue.

Sganarelle. Aristotle on this subject says … a great many clever things.

Géronte. I dare say.

Sganarelle. Ah! He was a great man!

Géronte. No doubt.

Sganarelle. Yes, a very great man. (Holding out his arm, and putting a finger of the other hand in the bend). A man who was, by this, much greater than I. But to come back to our argument: I hold that this impediment in the action of her tongue is caused by certain humours, which among us learned men, we call peccant humours; peccant—that is to say … peccant humours; inasmuch as the vapours formed by the exhalations of the influences which rise in the very region of diseases, coming, … as we may say to.… Do you understand Latin?

Géronte. Not in the least.