Homeopathy in James Joyce’s Ulysses
Ulysses by James Joyce
Circe, Chapter 15
Using Oxford World’s Classics paperback edition (bottom of page 482 and page 483):
During fantasy ‘discussion’ between Leopold Bloom and Virag (Bloom’s deceased Hungarian Jewish grandfather), Virag says:
Virag: “(His tongue upcurling.) Lyum! Look. Her beam is broad. She is coated with quite a considerable layer of fat. Obviously mammal in weight of bosom you remark that she has in front well to the fore two protuberances of very respectable dimensions, inclined to fall in the noonday soupplate, while on her rere lower down are two additional protuberances, suggestive of potent rectum and tumescent for palpation which leave nothing to be desired save compactness.
Such fleshy parts are the product of careful nurture. When coopfattened their livers reach an elephantine size. Pellets of new bread with fennygreek and gumbenjamin swamped down by potions of green tea endow them during their brief existence with natural pincushions of quite colossal blubber. That suite your book, eh? Fleshhotpots of Egypt to hander after. Wallow in it. Lycopodium. (His throat twitches.) Slapbang! There he goes again….”
And in one of the dialogues of Virag just after the Lycopodium mention, he says:
Virag: “(arching his eyebrows.) Contact with a goldring, they say. Argumentum ad feminam, as we said in old Rome and ancient Greece in the consulship of Diplodocus and Ichthyosaurus. For the rest Eve’s sovereign remedy……”.
Virag: “(Excitedly.) I say so. I say so. E’en so. Technic. (He taps his parchment roll energetically). This book tells you how to act with all descriptive particulars. Consult index for agitated fear of aconite, melancholy of muriatic, priapic pulsatilla. Virag is going to talk about amputation. Our old friend caustic.”
Now look at my post Sligo, Dublin, Literature & Homeopathy