devil
knows what else--

Billing. "The town's pulsating heart" was the expression I once used on
an important occasion.

Dr. Stockmann. Quite so. Well, do you know what they really are, these
great, splendid, much praised Baths, that have cost so much money--do
you know what they are?

Hovstad. No, what are they?

Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, what are they?

Dr. Stockmann. The whole place is a pest-house!

Petra. The Baths, father?

Mrs. Stockmann (at the same time), Our Baths?

Hovstad. But, Doctor--

Billing. Absolutely incredible!

Dr. Stockmann. The whole Bath establishment is a whited, poisoned
sepulchre, I tell you--the gravest possible danger to the public
health! All the nastiness up at Molledal, all that stinking filth, is
infecting the water in the conduit-pipes leading to the reservoir; and
the same cursed, filthy poison oozes out on the shore too--

Horster. Where the bathing-place is?

Dr. Stockmann. Just there.

Hovstad. How do you come to be so certain of all this, Doctor?

Dr. Stockmann. I have investigated the matter most conscientiously. For
a long time past I have suspected something of the kind. Last year we
had some very strange cases of illness among the visitors--typhoid
cases, and cases of gastric fever--

Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, that is quite true.

Dr. Stockmann. At the time, we supposed the visitors had been infected
before they came; but later on, in the winter, I began to have a
different opinion; and so I set myself to examine the water, as well as
I could.

Mrs. Stockmann. Then that is what you have been so busy with?

Dr. Stockmann. Indeed I have been busy, Katherine. But here I had none
of the necessary scientific apparatus; so I sent samples, both of the
drinking-water and of the sea-water, up to the University, to have an
accurate analysis made by a chemist.

Hovstad. And have you got that?

Dr. Stockmann (showing him the letter). Here it is! It proves the
presence of decomposing organic matter in the water--it is full of
infusoria. The water is absolutely dangerous to use, either internally
or externally.

Mrs. Stockmann. What a mercy you discovered it in time.

Dr. Stockmann. You may well say so.

Hovstad. And what do you propose to do now, Doctor?

Dr. Stockmann. To see the matter put right, naturally.

Hovstad. Can that be done?

Dr. Stockmann. It must be done. Otherwise the Baths will be absolutely
useless and wasted. But we need not anticipate that; I ha