On April 16, Dr. Rieux finds a dead rat on the landing in his building and asks the concierge (janitor) to remove it. He thinks little of it although it seems unusual to find a rat there. From that point on, dead rats appear all over town in larger and larger numbers.
The doctor is distracted because his wife is ill of tuberculosis and is being moved to a sanatorium in another area of the country for treatment that day. His mother is to come and help out while his wife is away.
One of his patients, an old Spaniard, is bedridden because of asthma and talks about the rats as the doctor examines him and gives him his medicine. This patient spends his days counting dried peas, moving them from pot to.....
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