Well, well, give me time, and you shall hear all about it. If only I had Peter here now! This just shows how we men can go about forming judgments like the blindest moles—— HOVSTAD. What do you mean, doctor? DR. STOCKMANN. [_Stopping beside the table._] Isn’t it the general opinion that our town is a healthy place? HOVSTAD. Of course. DR. STOCKMANN. A quite exceptionally healthy place, indeed—a place to be warmly recommended, both to invalids and people in health—— MRS. STOCKMANN. My dear Thomas—— DR. STOCKMANN. And assuredly we haven’t failed to recommend and belaud it. I've sung its praises again and again, both in the _Messenger_ and in pamphlets—— HOVSTAD. Well, what then? DR. STOCKMANN. These Baths, that we have called the pulse of the town, its vital nerve, and—and the devil knows what else—— BILLING. “Our city’s palpitating heart,” I once ventured to call them in a convivial moment—— DR. STOCKMANN. Yes, I daresay. Well—do you know what they really are, these mighty, magnificent, belauded Baths, that have cost so much money—do you know what they are? HOVSTAD. No, what are they? MRS. STOCKMANN. Do tell us. DR. STOCKMANN. Simply a pestiferous hole. PETRA. The Baths, father? MRS. STOCKMANN. [_At the same time._] Our Baths! HOVSTAD. [_Also at the same time._] But, Doctor——! BILLING. Oh, it’s incredible! DR. STOCKMANN. I tell you the whole place is a poisonous whited-sepulchre; noxious in the highest degree! All that filth up there in the Mill Dale—the stuff that smells so horribly—taints the water in the feed-pipes of the Pump-Room; and the same accursëd poisonous refuse oozes out by the beach—— HOVSTAD. Where the sea-baths are? DR. STOCKMANN. Exactly. HOVSTAD. But how are you so sure of all this, Doctor? DR. STOCKMANN. I've investigated the whole thing as conscientiously as possible. I've long had my suspicions about it. Last year we had some extraordinary cases of illness among the patients—both typhoid and gastric attacks—— MRS. STOCKMANN. Yes, I remember. DR. STOCKMANN. We thought at the time that the visitors had brought the infection with them; but afterwards—last winter—I began to question that. So I set about testing the water as well as I could.