Hippolyte
Hippolyte, of course, the young helper at the Lion D’Or inn, volunteered
himself (needing only insignificant convincing) to become a part of Yonville
history. After reading about a breakthrough in medicine, a cure for
clubfoot, I felt it was only proper that such a remarkable town as Yonville
should be one of the first to flaunt its medical prowess and perform the
radical surgery. I was fortunate enough to make the initial examination
of our Hippolyte, studying carefully the impairments of his katastrephopody,
endostrephopody, exostrephopody, hypostrephopody, and anastrephopody.
I will not bore you with all of my knowledge of medical procedure and terminology,
but the surgery required a simple cutting of tendons in order to loosen his
handicapped foot. Unfortunately, as his story goes, “The operation
box [worsened] Hippolyte’s condition beyond repair” (Tanner 282).
But, of course, this was beyond our control; certainly the winner of the
Cross of the Legion of Honor as well as a fine physician such as Charles
Bovary (bless his soul) could not have made such a mistake. The surgery,
in particular the pre-surgery examination, was done without flaw, and had
it not been for the fault of the box, Hippolyte would be healed today.
People of Yonville
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