Chapter 5, continued Summary

During the Christmas holidays, Dr. Behrens' handsome son Knut visits, causing jealous spats among some lady patients. Hans is relieved when both Clavdia and Settembrini leave a Christmas concert, so that he can concentrate on the music.

After the holidays, the Austrian horseman whose cough Hans Castorp heard on his first day dies. Hans and Joachim visit the widow to comfort her. Hans decides to begin openly visiting dying patients and their relatives. He and Joachim become known for their kind attentions and gifts of flowers. They are particularly moved by a dying girl named Leila Gerngross, whose distraught parents thank them. Another patient, Frau Zimmermann, is nicknamed "Lady Overblown" because she allowed a doctor in Zurich to overfill her pneumothorax with nitrogen, making her condition much more serious. The cousins meet Anton Ferge, an insurance salesman in Russia who never...