Summary

In late December, the colony’s bishop, Jean-Baptiste Saint-Vallier, visits Euclide’s shop. Saint-Vallier says that the elderly former bishop, Francois de Laval, is infirm and has enlarged veins in the leg. Saint-Vallier requests that Euclide perform bloodletting. However, Euclide states that, despite the popularity of bloodletting, he believes it to be harmful rather than helpful. The narration notes that, as bishop, Saint-Vallier has undone all religious administrative decrees of Laval that had made the parish well-suited to the needs of the colony. Saint-Vallier often seems both despotic and uncertain of himself, and he seems to be rather incompetent in his position as bishop. Laval is kinder and more competent. In Chapter 3.2, one day in early January, Cécile asks Euclide about the practice of using human bones in apothecary concoctions. Euclide says that the practice is useless but still popular among many apothecaries...