He heard his relative hold forth upon the disease which was the business of life up here, and upon the receptivity commonly displayed for it; upon Hans Castorp’s own simple but tedious case, upon the attraction the bacilli had for the cellular tissue of the air passages of the throat, bronchial tubes, and pulmonary vesicles; upon the formation of nodules, the manifestation of soluble toxins and their narcotic effect upon the system; of the breaking-down of the tissues, of caseation, and the question whether the disease would be arrested by a chalky petrefaction and heal by means of fibrosis, or whether it would extend the area, create still larger cavities, and destroy the organ. He was told of the “galloping” form the disease sometimes assumed, which made the end an affair of not more than a few months or even weeks; of pneumotomy, of the Hofrat’s masterly surgery, of resection of the lungs, an operation which was to be performed tomorrow or the day after upon a severe case just brought to the sanitorium, a charming, or once-charming Scotswoman suffering from