When Doctors Disagree — Middlemarch

Fred cannot return to Stone Court. Illness from unsanitary Houndsley streets deepens after his bad horse bargain and confession; he asks for Wrench, who calls it slight derangement, sends harsh medicine, and does not plan to return. The next morning Fred shivers by the fire; Wrench is on his rounds. Mrs. Vincy weeps; Rosamond, seated by the Lowick Gate window, sees Lydgate passing and urges calling him in.

Mrs. Vincy opens the sash without etiquette. Lydgate diagnoses pink-skinned typhoid and wrong treatment, orders bed and nursing, and arranges to meet Wrench at the house. Wrench hears reproach from mother and mayor, swallows instruction from a younger rival, then declines the case rather than truckle on a professional matter. Mr. Vincy cancels dinner guests and talks of brandy against infection while fearing he may lose his eldest son.

Town talk splits between scandal and providence; Mrs. Taft decides Lydgate is Bulstrode's natural son until Farebrother laughs and his mother says the report may fit some other son. Eliot pairs medical competence with professional war: Lydgate saves Fred while damaging his standing; Wrench protects pride over patient. Lydgate is installed as medical attendant on the Vincys. Routine dulls the wariest men; crisis reveals who can see.