Arrowsmith Chapters 16–18 Summary & Analysis

Following, there is an incident of blackleg among the cattle in Cryssen County. Martin isolates the problem and takes it upon himself to prepare a vaccine since the Hunziker vaccine had failed. Martin succeeds in stopping the black leg but the veterinarians and doctors claim he is a "notoriety seeker," and the doctors claim that it is wrong for a doctor to turn to cattle.

Martin discovers that Sondelius is lecturing in Minneapolis and decides to go. Sondelius turns out to be an eloquent speaker, and Martin decides to invite him to have a couple of drinks with him after his lecture. Sondelius agrees, and the two men have a good time talking and drinking, after which Martin finds himself a greater follower than ever of Sondelius.

Martin offers, because of his newfound interest in Sondelius's crusade on public health and disease, himself to Dr. Woestijne, the Superintendent of Health for Cryssen County. He does the work for half the pay and goes about adamantly seeking out epidemics and disease. He hears about a typhoid epidemic in the community at Delft and begins to map out the cases in order to come to some sort of conclusion. He discovers that the carrier of the typhoid is a hygienic spinster seamstress, and he wants to isolate her and examine her. The seamstress and the town are insulted and believe that he is wrong. However, when the County Board of Health calls in Dr. Hesselink, Dr. Hesselink confirms Martin's diagnosis.

Leora saves him from the town's resentment when she has the idea of collecting funds for the seamstress so that they may send her away to a good and large hospital to be cured. After his success with the typhoid case, Martin goes about searching out other epidemics and claims that there is a small pox outbreak in a nearby village. Martin is wrong and ridiculed endlessly by the townspeople.

When the town does not seem to abandon their jokes at Martin's expense, Martin decides he has to leave and that he has to start over somewhere else. He writes to Sondelius and asks him if he knows of any openings in the realm of public health. Sondelius helps him and, with the help of three recommendations (one from Silva, one from Sondelius, and one from Gottlieb) Martin attains a position in Public Health under Dr. Almus Pickerbaugh, in the town of Nautilus. Martin is optimistic about Nautilus.

Analysis

Lewis continues his critique of small-town America throughout these chapters. First, there is the humorous section about Bert Tozer's new self-induced role as town "booster," a particularly "American idea." Lewis illustrates it as a kind of senseless pride, pointing to the uselessness of advertising one's own town within one's own town (a notion, which appropriately, is worthy of satire). And so the character of Bert, who has been annoying from the start, becomes even more laughable with his new insistence on displaying town pennants on every car, an idea that spreads throughout the town. In fact, Martin seems to be the only one who finds this ridiculous.

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