As a personal friend of the
Marquis and of Rastignac, he had been in attendance on the former for
some days past, and was helping him to answer the inquiries of the
three professors, occasionally insisting somewhat upon those symptoms
which, in his opinion, pointed to pulmonary disease.
"You have been living at a great pace, leading a dissipated life, no
doubt, and you have devoted yourself largely to intellectual work?"
queried one of the three celebrated authorities, addressing Raphael.
He was a square-headed man, with a large frame and energetic
organization, which seemed to mark him out as superior to his two
rivals.
"I made up my mind to kill myself with debauchery, after spending
three years over an extensive work, with which perhaps you may some
day occupy yourselves," Raphael replied.
The great doctor shook his head, and so displayed his satisfaction. "I
was sure of it," he seemed to say to himself. He was the illustrious
Brisset, the successor of Cabanis and Bichat, head of the Organic
School, a doctor popular with believers in material and positive
science, who see in man a complete individual, subject solely to the
laws of his own particular organization; and who consider that his
normal condition and abnormal states of disease can both be traced to
obvious causes.
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