A sincere man of high ideals, _Dr. Stockmann_ returns home after an absence of many years, full of the spirit of enterprise and progressive innovation. For as he says to his brother _Peter_, the town _Burgomaster_, "I am so glad and content. I feel so unspeakably happy in the midst of all this growing, germinating life. After all, what a glorious time we do live in. It is as if a new world were springing up around us." _Burgomaster._ Do you really think so? _Dr. Stockmann._ Well, of course, you can't see this as clearly as I do. You've spent all your life in this place, and so your perceptions have been dulled. But I, who had to live up there in that small hole in the north all those years, hardly ever seeing a soul to speak a stimulating word to me--all this affects me as if I were carried to the midst of a crowded city--I know well enough that the conditions of life are small compared with many other towns. But here is life, growth, an infinity of things to work for and to strive for; and that is the main point. In this spirit _Dr. Stockmann_ sets to his task. After two years of careful investigation, he finds that the Baths are built on a swamp, full of poisonous germs, and that people who come there for their health will be infected with fever. _Thomas Stockmann_ is a conscientious physician. He loves his native town, but he loves his fellow-men more. He considers it his duty to communicate his discovery to the highest authority of the town, the _Burgomaster_, his brother _Peter Stockmann_. _Dr. Stockmann_ is indeed an idealist; else he would know that the man is often lost in the official. Besides, _Peter Stockmann_ is also the president of the board of directors and one of the heaviest stockholders of the Baths. Sufficient reason to upbraid his reckless medical brother as a dangerous man: _Burgomaster._ Anyhow, you've an ingrained propensity for going your own way. And that in a well-ordered community is almost as dangerous. The individual must submit himself to the whole community, or, to speak more correctly, bow to the authority that watches over the welfare of all. But the _Doctor_ is not disconcerted: _Peter_ is an official; he is not concerned with ideals. But there is the press,--that is the medium for his purpose! The staff of the _People's Messenger_--_Hovstad_, _Billings_, and _Aslaksen_, are deeply impressed by the _Doctor's_ discovery. With one eye to good copy and the other to the political chances, they immediately put the _People's Messenger_ at the disposal of _Thomas Stockmann_. _Hovstad_ sees great possibilities for a thorough radical reform of the whole life of the community.