Chapter 2107 Trial and Error
Manbao stood at the door and looked at him and said, "He's already developing acne very quickly. Wouldn't it be too aggressive to stimulate it further?"
Doctor Lu frowned and thought for a moment, "Then he'll probably have a fever all night. When I gave him the acupuncture just now, it felt scalding hot. He probably won't make it. I'll prescribe a comprehensive prescription to reduce his fever slightly."
Manbao nodded, "Don't press on the sores."
"I know."
So the two of them discussed and came up with a prescription. It was not difficult to come up with. They had already made several effective prescriptions when they were in Xiazhou. Now they just needed to add or subtract some medicinal materials, or change the quantity according to the actual situation of the patient.
The two of them wrote out the prescription, and Manbao took the medicine to the medicine shelf nearby to get some. These were the herbs they had transferred from the Imperial Hospital, and they were all useful.
They were packed in boxes with the names of the medicines written on them.
Manbao weighed out a packet of medicine, handed it to the servant and said, "Go and boil the medicine."
Number 3 recovered quickly, but the pimples on his body began to scab over in two days, and it is estimated that the scabs will fall off in less than two days.
Manbao looked at him thoughtfully and said, "How about using his scabs to continue the next experiment?"
Dean Xiao and Imperial Physician Lu couldn't help but look over, then looked at the unconscious patients in the two beds next to them. They sighed and nodded, "He's recovering well. Judging from the condition of his pox, the poison shouldn't be very strong."
The conditions of the other two people were not very good. It was strange. They had the same scabs and the amount was almost the same, so why were the conditions of the three people so different?
Manbao frowned and said, "Because of age?"
Dean Xiao and Imperial Physician Lu looked at the young No. 3, and then at No. 2 and No. 1. This was the only reason.
Doctor Lu said, "Judging from the situation in Xiazhou, the mortality rate among the elderly after contracting smallpox is indeed higher, followed by adults, while children and teenagers have the lowest mortality rate."
Manbao also nodded.
Xiao Yuan was deep in thought. "From now on, vaccinations should be done early. I don't know what the success rate is. It would be great if everyone could be like Number Three."
Manbao said, "There are very few prisoners who are so young, right?" So where can we find experimental subjects?
Xiao Yuanzheng said, "It's only available among the families of implicated officials. We have to go to the Dali Temple to find them. However, vaccination is very dangerous. Most of the implicated officials' families have been exiled or sent to the imperial court. I'm afraid they won't be willing to take the risk of their lives."
Man Bao nodded slightly and said, "Let's wait and see. If his pox scabs are less toxic, then the risk of the next vaccination will not be very high. We can then discuss with the Dali Temple to have them make amends for their crimes."
Some people think that life is more important, and naturally there are also people who want to take a chance and seek wealth and fame through risk.
Neither Dean Xiao nor Doctor Lu expressed any objection, but it was too early to bring this up. The most urgent task now was to save the lives of the two people in the hospital bed, otherwise two of the three would die from smallpox, and the mortality rate would be higher than that in Xiazhou.
The three of them tried their best to treat the patient, taking turns using acupuncture and medicinal juice. No. 2's condition gradually stabilized, the sores showed signs of improvement, and the patient's fever was gradually subsiding.
The three of them breathed a sigh of relief, and then most of their attention turned to Number One.
But he didn't know whether it was because he was old or his health was worse than the other two, but his high fever didn't subside and the smallpox couldn't be completely dissipated. After just two days, he became confused due to the fever.
Manbao and the others saw that his condition was not improving, so they had to prescribe medicine to reduce his fever, but it was impossible to reduce the fever at this point, and even if it was suppressed, it would rebound violently afterwards.
Moreover, if smallpox cannot be released, it will inevitably cause other diseases. They have seen too many such cases in the past four months.
At noon on the third day, Doctor Lu took the patient's pulse, looked at the pale-faced No. 1 lying on the bed, shook his head, and left, saying, "It's useless. There's no way to save him."
Manbao went in to take a look and couldn't help but give him another set of injections, but he still died that night.
It wasn't the first time anyone had seen a dead person, so they just sighed with regret and then recorded what needed to be recorded.
Manbao looked at the fresh sores on his body and couldn't help turning his head to look at No. 3 and No. 2 who had completely recovered.
The two of them were startled when they met his gaze and took a step back together.
Manbao put down the notebook in his hand and said to Xiao Yuanzheng, Imperial Physician Lu, "We haven't tried yet to see if the people they vaccinated can really stop spreading smallpox."
Doctor Lu: "It's common knowledge that people who've had smallpox won't get it again. Isn't that true?"
Xiao Yuanzheng understood Zhou Man's meaning. "But their situations are a little different, especially number three. It didn't even take five days from the time he got the pox to when he recovered."
Moreover, there were very few sores on his body, and he basically did not suffer any pain. To be honest, Xiao Yuanzheng himself was a little worried. What if the sores were useless and the smallpox would still be transmitted to him?
Manbao said, "There's a way. Let's try it with the fresh pox pus from his body."
Xiao Yuan was looking at Number One who had just closed his eyes on the bed... and his body was still red, and he seemed to be lost in thought.
After a while, three imperial doctors came forward with a piece of cotton cloth, pricked the two fresh smallpox spots on his body, dipped the cloth in serum, and walked towards No. 3.
Number Three trembled, thinking they were going to stuff it into his nose again. But Manbao grabbed his hand, rolled up his sleeves, and pricked his arm with a thick needle, causing it to bleed. Then they took the cotton cloth and wiped his wound.
Manbao said: "We'll know in two days whether it works or not."
Teacher Mo was delighted when he learned about this and said, "The reason you want to get vaccinated against smallpox is to reduce its toxicity so you can gain immunity without risk, right?"
He said, "According to the pulse number three you gave me, his condition isn't even good. The best smallpox vaccine I know of doesn't cause any discomfort other than a slight pain during administration. Successful inoculation leaves a small pox mark on the body, which confers immunity to smallpox."
Manbao listened with great interest and asked, "Is this the cowpox treatment mentioned in the book?"
Teacher Mo smiled and said, "According to records, cowpox is much safer than human smallpox. Unfortunately, I've been searching for a long time and haven't been able to find a very detailed production method. However, I asked some colleagues, and they all agreed that cowpox vaccination should also be cultivated through several generations, at least the second generation, so that the toxicity is much less."
Manbao asked, "Is it the same as the water vaccine method for smallpox, using ground smallpox scabs to make the vaccine?"
Teacher Mo shook his head. "I suspect they're using smallpox pus. That way, the effect will be faster. If cowpox is really that much safer than human pox, as described in the book, then the smallpox virus, after several generations of domestication, is not very toxic. At this time, the vaccination should be direct vaccination. Unfortunately, you don't have injections there. Perhaps you can just prick your arm and contaminate the wound with the vaccine, like you did today?"
Manbao pondered and said, "Since I can't explain it clearly, I can only try them one by one."
Teacher Mo also thinks so. Science is all about trial and error.
I was too sleepy tonight, and accidentally updated in the wrong place. I owe you an update, I'll make it up the day after tomorrow. Good night
(End of this chapter)
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