Old Doctor Heech

Old Doctor Heech is Argus’s physician, known for his medical skill, his forceful and changeable manner, and an interest in anatomy that extends beyond routine practice. He treats both Fidelis Waldvogel’s injured knee and Clarisse Strub’s infection, while his encounter with Fidelis over a song helps turn private recovery into a new civic institution: the Argus Singing Club.

Identity and Practice

Doctor Heech approaches medicine as both practical craft and close study of the body. His examination room is decorated with detailed watercolors of muscles, bones, and the digestive and reproductive systems, which he painted himself. He is particularly attentive to anatomy, and when he examines Fidelis’s knee, he considers how to repair the torn structures holding it together. The account compares his planning to the care with which someone might mend badly damaged clothing, emphasizing that his work is restorative and attentive to the particular injury.

His bedside manner is less predictable than his technical attention. The town knows that he may scold, weep, or appear to take unusual pleasure in his work. Heech is also somewhat vain about his thick, glossy hair, a small personal detail set against the seriousness of his profession. His presence combines command, eccentricity, and an evident fascination with the body.

Treatment of Fidelis Waldvogel

Heech treats Fidelis after a sow has badly injured his knee. Fidelis arrives with the wound bound in an apron, its strings securing an improvised bandage. Heech cuts the knots and unwraps the fabric; a piece of Fidelis’s flesh clings to it. He calls the makeshift dressing a remarkable piece of engineering, then assesses the damaged knee and the torn muscles that have kept the kneecap in place. The injury is severe enough that Fidelis recognizes he may be left with lasting difficulty, while Heech works out how to repair it.

During the procedure, Heech fits an inhalation cup over Fidelis’s face and stitches the wound while Fidelis remains aware of what is happening but detached from its immediate pain. Heech hums as he works, first singing “Aura Lee.” Fidelis becomes interested in the tune, learns the chorus, and then sings through the verses with the doctor. Their shared music changes the atmosphere of the treatment: Fidelis is no longer preoccupied with anger or fear, and the two become friendly. Heech keeps him for fifteen minutes after the final stitch to sketch a brace that will hold the knee in place while allowing some range of motion during healing.

The exchange follows an earlier moment in which Fidelis, trying to divert himself from the pain, hums “Ich bin der Doktor Eisenbart.” Heech recognizes the song and supplies another line. Their mutual knowledge of the melody makes music a point of contact before the longer singing during the operation. The episode presents medical care not only as repair but also as an encounter in which Heech’s responsiveness and Fidelis’s musical attention briefly ease the strain of injury.

Care for Clarisse Strub

Heech also oversees Clarisse Strub’s treatment for a serious infection whose source remains uncertain. Clarisse works around the embalming room at Strub’s Funerary, and the possibility that she encountered an infected body is considered, though Heech doubts that a dead body could have transmitted the disease. The cause is never settled. He treats her with a prolonged course of intravenous salvarsan and deep-tissue mercury injections, procedures that are extremely unpleasant and require endurance.

Delphine Watzka accompanies Clarisse through the treatment and holds her hand. She is the only person outside Clarisse’s family and Heech admitted to the private basement of the funeral business, and one of the very few people who knows what happened. Heech’s treatment therefore sits within a closely guarded episode of Clarisse’s life: he provides the medical care, while Delphine’s presence gives Clarisse personal support through it. The account describes the treatment as difficult without resolving the uncertain origin of the infection.

Music and the Argus Singing Club

Heech’s singing with Fidelis has consequences beyond the examining room. During a period of estrangement between the two butcher shops, Fidelis misses the singing club he belonged to in Ludwigsruhe, where membership had been limited to master butchers. After singing with Heech, he recognizes that an American club need not be restricted by occupation and begins bringing townsmen together to sing.

The first meeting takes place in the high-ceilinged slaughtering room at Waldvogel’s. Heech is among the people who attend, alongside the bank’s employees, a bootlegger, the sheriff, and Roy Watzka. He disapproves of the beer but accepts the role of watching how much the men drink; his vigilance can soften if they persuade him to join them. The gathering lasts through the night, as participants teach one another songs and find harmonies. Heech’s participation makes him part of the diverse company that turns Fidelis’s homesickness for his former club into a town institution.

Narrative Role

Heech connects two kinds of repair in the novel. His work addresses injuries and illness directly, but the scenes around him also show how care can create new forms of companionship. With Fidelis, a painful procedure becomes a shared musical experience; with Clarisse, medical treatment takes place alongside the steady support of a friend. His role in the singing club extends that pattern from individual encounters into community life. He is not simply a doctor who appears when a body needs attention: through his craft, eccentricity, and willingness to sing, he helps make Argus’s social world more closely joined.