“You think so? You know that the photographic plate often shows spots that are taken for cavities when there are none there? And that, sometimes, it shows no spots although there is something there? Madonna ⁠—the photographic plate! There was a young numismatician up here, with fever; and since he had fever, there were cavities plain to be seen on the plate. They could even hear them. They treated him for phthisis, and he died. The postmortem showed his lung to be sound; the cause of his death was some coccus or other.”

“Oh, come, Herr Settembrini. Talking about postmortems already. I haven’t got that far yet, I assure you.”

“Engineer, you are a wag.”

“And you are an out-and-out critic and sceptic, I must say. You do not even believe in science. Can you see spots on your plate, Herr Settembrini?”

“Yes, it shows some spots.”

“And you really are ill too?”