Doctor poisons Coyotito

The Doctor poisons Coyotito as a calculated deception to create a medical crisis, enabling him to appear as the baby's savior and gain access to Kino's great pearl. This act of medical fraud is the first direct assault on the family's newfound fortune and sets in motion the escalating violence and paranoia that will ultimately destroy them.

The Doctor's Motive and Method

The Doctor, a man who had once been a part of the great world and whose whole subsequent life was memory and longing for France, saw in Kino's pearl a chance to return to what he considered civilized living. He had already refused to treat the scorpion-stung Coyotito when Kino could offer only eight small, misshapen seed pearls. But upon hearing that Kino had found the Pearl of the World, the Doctor reversed his position entirely. He came to Kino's brush house, not out of medical duty, but to locate and steal the jewel. His method was a deliberate poisoning. From his small black bag he took a little bottle of white powder and a capsule of gelatine. He filled the capsule with the powder, then fitted a second capsule around the first. He forced the capsule far back on the baby's tongue, beyond the point where he could spit it out, and gave him a drink of pulque. The Doctor then predicted that the poison would attack within the hour, and left, promising to return.

The Poison's Effect and the Doctor's Return

The Doctor's prediction proved accurate. After he left, Coyotito's face became flushed, his throat worked, and a thick drool of saliva issued from his lips. The spasm of the stomach muscles began, and the baby was very sick, vomiting and writhing in Juana's arms. The news of the baby's illness traveled quickly among the brush houses, and the neighbors crowded in. When the Doctor hurried back, he scattered the old women like chickens. He took the baby, examined it, and felt its head. "The poison it has worked," he said, claiming he could defeat it. He asked for water, put three drops of ammonia in it, pried open the baby's mouth, and poured it down. The baby spluttered and screeched under the treatment. Gradually the spasms subsided, and Coyotito relaxed and went to sleep. The Doctor then put the baby in Juana's arms and declared, "He will get well now. I have won the fight." Juana looked at him with adoration, completely deceived by his performance.

The Doctor's Attempt to Locate the Pearl

Having established himself as the baby's savior, the Doctor immediately turned the conversation to payment. When Kino said he would pay after selling his pearl, the Doctor feigned surprise, claiming he had not heard of it. He then offered to keep the pearl in his safe, a transparent attempt to gain possession of it. Kino, his eyes hooded and his cheeks drawn taut, refused, saying he had it secure. The Doctor, his wet eyes never leaving Kino's, then used a psychological trick: he suggested it would be a shame to have the pearl stolen before it could be sold, and watched Kino's eyes flick involuntarily to the floor near the side post of the brush house, revealing the pearl's hiding place. This act of poisoning, a calculated abuse of medical trust, demonstrates the Doctor's complete moral corruption and his willingness to harm an innocent child for personal gain. It also marks the point at which Kino's suspicion of the world hardens into a permanent, defensive shell, as he begins to understand that the pearl has attracted not just greed, but a kind of predatory evil that will stop at nothing.