Summary

The courtship and marriage of Juvenal Urbino and Fermina Daza is explored in the third chapter of the book. Juvenal returns from several years of studying in Europe to find the conditions of his city and country in a bad state. He can see that a lot of the health problems of the citizens, including cholera, stem from poor sanitation and waste removal. He begins at once to try to change public policy but faces challenges of winning over politicians and citizens who are set in their old ways. Juvenal successfully averts a cholera epidemic with his shrewd medical techniques and this helps him gain a foothold in reforming the unhealthy habits of the country. During this time, he is called to the home of Lorenzo Daza to examine his daughter Fermina who is demonstrating possible signs of cholera. While it turns out that she only...