"I devote the greater part of my time, señor, to the investigation of the ills that affect the _Ramus stomachichus_, wherewith I have perceived, even in the so little time I have sojourned in your town, that many of its inhabitants are afflicted. My father bade me inquire very particularly after your health, the which by your last advice was not all that could be wished. I fear that the _Ramus stomachichus_ is the seat of your disorder, and I trust that the treatment of your physician is meeting with the desired success." I threw this out as a bait, and to my exceeding joy I saw that it was swallowed as greedily as a gudgeon snaps up a worm. Don Ygnacio was a mountainous man, as Stubbs had told me on the voyage, with the girth but not the hardness of an oak, his face like dough with two raisins for eyes, his whole frame betokening a consuming love of the flesh-pots and strong liquors. During my speech, delivered with a measured gravity, his face put on a look of great dolefulness, and broke out into a sweat. "I cannot sleep," said he, in most dolorous accents. "A certain sign," said I, nodding my head gravely. "I dream of horrors," said he. "Devils, and serpents, dark dens and caves, sepulchres, and dead corpses," said I, quoting the words of Ambrose Parey, which I had diligently conned on board ship, "all arising from the putrefaction and inflammation of the _Ramus stomachichus_, together with the afflux of noisome humours to the brain. The diaphragm hath a close community with that organ, by the nerves of the sixth conjugation which are carried in the stomach." "I reel in the street," said he, with lamentable groans, "and when I lay my head on the pillow, I hear noises like the sound of many waters." I shook my head solemnly, having at the moment no more of Ambrose Parey’s sentences at my command. Taking him delicately by the wrist, I put my finger on his pulse, which in truth fluttered unsteadily. "Show me your tongue," I said, and could barely avoid laughing at the grimace he made when he displayed that monstrous organ. Then, presuming on his manifest discomposure, I dealt him a lusty buffet above the fifth rib, so that he catched at his breath, and at his outcry I inquired solicitously whether he felt any pain. "The pains of Gehenna," he said, groaning. I was mute, bending on him a mournful look, whereat his excitation of mind did but increase. "I pray you, cousin, be open with me," he said. "I will steel my heart to bear it."