1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 131 Smallpox
"Some of us... got smallpox?" Old Ghost Peng asked nervously.

"There are two of us!" Qi Tian shook his head, "But six or seven of the Black Valley natives seem to have had smallpox. ... They have been isolated, including a dozen of the natives who had close contact with them."

"When did it happen?"

"Three days ago, Niuhu found several aborigines in the mine, with typical red rashes obviously distributed on the face, arms and legs. Yesterday, I went to see it, and I thought it was smallpox." Qi Tian was somewhat said worriedly.

In this era, smallpox is a highly contagious virus. Once people are infected, they can only resign themselves to their fate.Patients with fulminant smallpox symptoms usually die within 3 to 5 days, usually from uncontrolled toxemia or hemorrhage.

In a haemorrhage, a large amount of blood in a person's body leaks into the skin, throat, lungs, bowels, or uterus.Such patients do not have the typical papules or blisters, but just the usual red or purple blotches, petechiae, or measles-like erythema.These symptoms also appear when the human body is severely infected and the blood coagulation function is severely damaged.

In other malignant infections, variola virus causes diffuse damage when tissue layers or deep layers of the skin are severely damaged, and patients die within 10 to 14 days of onset of symptoms, covered in pustules, which sometimes coalesce.

The lesions of patients with benign smallpox infection are limited to the epidermis, which is less likely to cause secondary bacterial infections and the patients will survive.For example, Kangxi, who wanted to live another 500 years, had smallpox when he was young, but he had many pockmarks on his face.

In Hanzhou, a place with a very small population base, once smallpox breaks out, it is likely to be wiped out.

After Qi Tian discovered the suspected smallpox, he was beyond shocked.He immediately asked Niu Hu and other guards to quickly wrap cotton cloth on the exposed parts such as the head and hands, and forcibly isolated the more than 30 indigenous patients including close contacts.Strictly ordered no one to approach them, and privately ordered Niu Hu to mobilize and gather more than 150 guards and people, and surround all the indigenous people in the mine, not allowing them to enter or leave.

"Have our people... been contagious on a large scale?"

"Uncle Kun and Pan Qifeng are investigating..."

"Alas..." Old Ghost Peng sighed, frowned, and said half a word: "Be ruthless..."

Qi Tian was silent, he knew that the phrase "be ruthless" meant to find anyone suspected of smallpox, isolate and deal with them all.

"Smallpox is a terminal disease, I... can't cure it!" Peng Laogui thought that Qi Tian asked him to cure smallpox, and shook his head and refused.

"I know how to prevent smallpox!" Qi Tian said, "A method that can prevent everyone from getting smallpox."

"I read it in a book before?" Old Ghost Peng smiled. Sometimes, Qi Tian would tell him a lot about medical knowledge, some of which he had never heard of.Ask him the source of his knowledge, and Qi Tian will tell him that he read it in a book before.

"Yes, I saw it in a book before." Qi Tian replied seriously: "However, we need to find someone to test it."

"What method?" Peng Laogui didn't ask Qi Tianwai which book he read it from.

"Use cowpox!"

"That's the thing, it can cure smallpox?" A group of people surrounded a cattle, looking at the pus leaking from the pustules on the cow's skin, Old Ghost Peng looked at Qi Tian suspiciously.

"It's not treating smallpox." Qi Tian corrected, "It's preventing smallpox!"

"This... can it work?" Ding Chuangen was also skeptical.The pus on the cow is obviously a kind of disease fluid, not to mention that it looks filthy, even if it is based on pathology, "toxic" animal disease fluid should not be used to prevent and treat infectious diseases.

"Practice is the best truth to test everything!" Qi Tian said again what he often said to craftsmen and students, "Try it."

"How to try?" Peng Laogui was still a little dubious, if he hadn't seen Qi Tian so determined, he would have walked away long ago.

"The Black Valley Mine has isolated more than 30 smallpox patients and contacts." Qi Tian meant to use these aboriginal people for vaccinia vaccination experiments.

"Ok?"

"Collect the pus from the cows, cut the skin of people who have not had smallpox, apply it, and then... put it next to the smallpox patients."

Qi Tian had to explain in a little detail how to vaccinate against vaccinia and smallpox.

The world's first series of vaccinia inoculation experiments, in May 1796, the British Edward Jenner injected an eight-year-old boy James Phipps with the substance taken from the vaccinia pus on the hand of a dairymaid .As expected, the child suffered from cowpox, but recovered quickly.Jenner vaccinated him against smallpox, and the child did not develop smallpox.

Now, because of the sudden outbreak of smallpox among the natives of the Black Valley, Qi only remembered the method of vaccinating against smallpox.

The mortality rate of smallpox is about 30%. Although it is much lower than plague, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, due to its "everyone is equal" feature, its destructiveness to human society is also at the forefront of many infectious diseases Many historians even commented that the smallpox epidemic was "the largest genocide in human history", and the evidence-based death toll caused by smallpox was more than hundreds of millions.

In addition, the most annoying thing about smallpox is that it disfigures the face. Whether it is ancient or modern, beauty is what everyone pursues, and the existence of smallpox greatly reduces the appearance of human beings.There is such a proverb circulating among the Chinese folks-"A child is only half born, and smallpox is considered complete." Because the incidence rate is too high, just looking for a person on the street in ancient times is likely to have a "pockmarked face".

"Xiaotian, last time the pirates attacked, there were more than [-] wounded thieves, and only five of them were cured in the end....You know?"

"...I know." More than thirty injured thieves, half of them were not fatal injuries, but only five of them were cured.So the more than 20 people who died were mostly because Peng Laogui was accidentally "cured" to death in order to research better treatment methods.

"I used to be just a doctor who treated animals."

"You will be a very powerful doctor in the future,... a doctor who treats patients!"

"Vaccinia can really prevent smallpox?"

"Okay. But you need to try more."

"I'm going to die, my daughter-in-law remarried, you have to help her find a good man."

"You won't die!" Qi Tian looked at Old Ghost Peng's solemn expression, "Tightly cover your mouth, nose, and naked body to avoid infection."

"Hehe..., I used to be just a doctor who treated livestock!"

"Uncle Peng, the vaccinia vaccination is successful, and all the people in the world will remember you!" Qi Tian remembered that the British Edward Jenner gained huge economic benefits and world-wide benefits because of his successful vaccinia vaccination and popularization of this method. The high reputation and appreciation within.

"Chuangen, go and ask that Hei San to call a few natives and go with me to the Black Valley Mine." After Qi Tian left, Peng Laogui looked at the broken pustules on the cow for a while, Immediately ordered Ding Chuangen.

"Master isn't going to take me there?" Ding Chuangen looked at Old Ghost Peng.

"You are still young, stay in Jianye City with a few senior brothers." Peng Laogui said with a smile.

"But, I also want to become famous with my master!"

"... People will die!"

"Master, it seems that I have already died once!"

"...You have to leave a seed for your family!"

"In six or seven months, my mother will give me a younger brother!... Hehe, maybe a younger sister."

"...Little bastard, don't be afraid of death. Tomorrow, I will take Hei San and the others and follow me to the Black Valley!" Old Ghost Peng said viciously, and left the cowshed with a wave of his hands.

"Boss, something is wrong!" A former pirate prisoner bowed his head to the old clapper and said, "A lot of guards have come in these two days, and they are still fully armed. They won't kill us, will they?"

The pirates who attacked last time were captured more than 160 people. Although they were in the same mine as the Black Valley natives, they were separated in different mining areas. Moreover, the surveillance on them was obviously much stricter.There are only five or six guards in the mining area on the indigenous side of the Black Valley.On the side of the pirate captives, more than 30 guards were arranged.

In the past few days, smallpox broke out in the aborigines, and Niu Hu mobilized more than 150 armed men to completely seal off the mining area.On the side of the pirate captives, the number has increased to more than 60, fully equipped with muskets, swords and swords.

"Go up alone and ask about the situation." Old Clapper was also a little worried.The security of the guards has been improved a lot compared to before. Every meal is no longer sent to the mining area operation site, but placed far away on the edge of the mining area, and two people are ordered to go back and forth to get it.

Taketa Sanada was holding a long knife, staring coldly at a coolie slowly climbing up from the mining area below.Before he reached 30 meters, he drew out his long knife and shouted loudly: "Go back! Don't go any further!"

"Master, I'll come up and ask when lunch will be delivered. The brothers below are all starving!" the pirate prisoner said with a smile, but he didn't stop.He knew that as coolies in the mining area, they were relatively expensive, and they would not be able to kill them. At most, they could be whipped or kicked a few times, and they were expected to mine more.

"Warning again, go back immediately. Otherwise, you will die!" Taketa Sanada yelled sharply.The day before yesterday, he and several Japanese fellow countrymen were armed urgently and dragged to the mining area.And strictly ordered them not to allow any coolies to escape from the mining area, let alone contact with them. A terrible plague has occurred here and is being dealt with.

The pirate prisoner didn't take it seriously, and continued to climb up. He wanted to find the guards he knew well.These Japanese wild samurai couldn't communicate with them, they were all wooden heads.

Taketa Sanada covered his mouth and nose with the cloth around his neck, and signaled his companions to prepare their muskets.

"Bang!" There was a gunshot, and the pirate who stepped forward looked at the hole in his chest in disbelief, opened his mouth to say something, but then fell to the ground and rolled down the slope, blocked by a big rock, Just stop there.

"Everyone, don't come forward!" Sanada Taketa stood on the slope and shouted loudly: "Don't run around! Otherwise, everyone will die!"

After hearing the news, the guards came just to look at the corpses on Banpo, encouraged Taketa Sanada and the others, and then continued to inspect the mining area.

The old clapper and other pirate prisoners were both shocked and frightened when they saw the scene just now.They really dare to kill, as a coolie, they don't seem to be as important as imagined.

Moreover, something must have happened in the mining area to make these guards so nervous.

(End of this chapter)