I am Peter III, Emperor of the Hexagon of the Goose Kingdom

Chapter 159 The Threat of the Eighteenth Century, the Difference in the Queen's Choice

During the days when the countess was suffering from smallpox, Ekaterina took her son Paul and hid in Huangcun tremblingly, and then moved from Huangcun to various villas in the countryside, avoiding any contact with outsiders, and hid for several days. months.

Smallpox was treated with an injection of infected tissue from recovered patients with mild smallpox, a technique that was used in England and the British North American colonies around 1765.

But continental Europe has been largely secretive about the new technology, which is widely believed to be very risky.

The grandfather of the Scottish doctor Thomas Dimsdale traveled to America in 1684, and Dimsdale obtained a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh and published "A New Method of Smallpox Inoculation", claiming to reduce the risk of vaccination.

The book was published four times in England, and when Catherine heard about it, she invited him to Russia.

Dimsdale arrived in 1768, with his son and assistants.

Although Dimsdale believed that his method reduced the risk of vaccination, he couldn't help being surprised when he heard Ekaterina's words.

Because Ekaterina, who was already the queen at the time, asked for the first vaccination.

Dimsdale suggested to consult the imperial doctor first, but Ekaterina thought it was unnecessary, because some imperial doctors couldn't even cure flea bites.

Dimsdale took the next best thing and begged him to conduct inoculation experiments on women of the same age first, but Ekaterina once again vetoed it.

Then out of caution, Dimsdale asked to wait a few more weeks, and this time Catherine agreed.

Ten days before the inoculation, Ekaterina began to abstain from meat and alcohol, and took mercury, crab foot powder, and calculus emetic.

At 1768 o'clock in the evening on October 10, 12, Dimsdale injected smallpox pus extracted from the farm boy Alexander Markov into Ekaterina's arms, and the boy was later awarded Lord.

On the second day after the vaccination, Ekaterina took a carriage to Huangcun, avoided the crowd and began to wait for the results.

She was outdoors for two or three hours a day, and she started feeling a little unwell, and some pustules appeared on her body, but they scabbed over within a week.

Three weeks later, Dimsdale announced that the vaccination was successful, and Ekaterina returned to her normal life.

Ekaterina returned to St. Petersburg on November 11, and then doctors vaccinated Paul.

Both the Senate and the Congress congratulated Ekaterina on her vaccination.

Ekaterina said:
"I can lead by example in order to save countless of my subjects from dying, who are ignorant of the significance of this new technology, fearful and always under the threat of smallpox."

Under Ekaterina's demonstration, 140 nobles in St. Petersburg were subsequently vaccinated, and then Dimsdale vaccinated 50 people in Moscow. Clinics dedicated to vaccination have also been opened in Moscow, Irkutsk and some other cities.

In 1780, 2 people in Russia participated in the vaccination, and by 1800, the number of people vaccinated reached 200 million.

For Dimsdale's contribution, Ekaterina named him a baron, and awarded him a bonus of 10 pounds and a lifetime annuity of 500 pounds.

In 1781, Dimsdale visited Russia again to vaccinate Ekaterina's eldest grandson, the two-faced Alexander.

Sometimes Peter had to admire Ekaterina's courage. Even in the 21st century, who would dare to try to inject smallpox pus into the body?
But Yekaterina dares, she is still a queen.

The entire Western European countries praised Ekaterina's first vaccination, and Voltaire was even more appreciative.

Before the vaccination, only the mouthpiece Frederick wrote to Ekaterina not to take risks.

Just six years after Ekaterina was vaccinated, in May 1774, King Louis XV of France died in bed with a girl who was infected with smallpox, ending his 5-year rule.

His successor, Louis XVI, was only 19 years old at this time, and the lesson was in front of him, and he immediately vaccinated.

But in addition to smallpox, another disease that is more terrifying to Russia is the bubonic plague, the Black Death.

Three years after Catherine's battle against smallpox, Russia entered into a struggle with an even more terrifying adversary.

This disease has spread for a long time in the area bordering Russia and the European part of Turkey. People think that this disease will only break out in warm climates, but they don't understand the relationship between fleas and rats and the Black Death.

The traditional preventive measure is isolation, ranging from isolating suspected patients to segregating the entire area by the military.

In March 1770, cases of bubonic plague infection appeared in the Russian army stationed in Wallachia Province in Turkey on the Balkan Peninsula. In September, the epidemic spread to Kiev in Ulan.

After autumn, the weather turned cooler and the spread of the epidemic slowed down, but a large number of refugees began to flee to the north.

In mid-January of the following year, the panic among the people seemed to subside. However, as soon as the ice and snow began to melt after the spring, the typical black spots and swollen glands appeared on the bodies of Moscow residents. 1 workers were killed.

On March 3, Ekaterina issued a decree declaring emergency martial law in Moscow, and theater performances, dances and large gatherings were prohibited.

When a cold snap hit Moscow in late March and the death rate plummeted, Ekaterina and city officials lifted the ban.

However, the epidemic broke out again at the end of June. In August, the disease swept across the entire city of Moscow. Soldiers cleaning up corpses in the streets and alleys died of the disease one after another. Moscow's chief medical officer also took a month off to receive treatment.

On September 9, Ekaterina learned that the average daily death rate of Moscow's population had climbed to three or four hundred, corpses were thrown all over the streets, checkpoints throughout the city were paralyzed, and the people of the city were facing The threat of famine, as supplies were no longer brought into the city.

All patients, regardless of gender and age, must be admitted to an isolation center.

The mandatory preventive measures led to riots, and the already terrified citizens of Moscow began to think that it was doctors and those medicines that brought the disease to Moscow. Come to the ban on idols of peace and the like.

Instead, people gather around the idol for comfort or salvation.

The statue of the Virgin Mary at the gate of Wawaski turned into a complete magnet.

Day after day, more and more patients are crawling at the feet of this statue, making it the real epicenter of the spread of the epidemic in Moscow.

Doctors are well aware of the situation, but no one has the guts to step in and intervene.

The Archbishop of Moscow, Father Ambrose, was influenced by enlightenment thoughts. After seeing that the doctors were helpless to the situation in front of him, in order to prevent people from gathering together and reduce the chance of infection, Father Ambrose relied on his authority as a priest. , Under the cover of night, the statue of the Virgin Mary at the gate of Wawaski City was quietly transferred.

He believed that once they learned that the matter was done by the priest, everyone would go back to their respective homes, and the epicenter of the epidemic would naturally disappear.

As a result, the priest's painstaking efforts caused a riot.

The crowd did not disperse, and the people were enraged.

The priest fled into a monastery and hid in a cellar. The mob followed, dragged the priest out of the cellar, and mutilated his body.

The riots finally came to an end after the army suppressed them, in which 100 people were killed and 300 were arrested.

Ekaterina realized that the people of Moscow and the whole city had lost control. The nobles abandoned the city and fled to their villas in the country. Factories and shops were closed one after another. In the crowded wooden houses, the mice are parasitized by a large number of fleas carrying germs, and these people can only resign themselves to their fate.

At the end of September, the Empress received a report from the Governor of Moscow. The 9-year-old General Peter Saltykov said in the report that the average daily death toll had exceeded 72, and he could do nothing, and the situation was completely out of control.

The general asked the empress to allow him to leave Moscow temporarily and return to the city after winter.

The rising death rate, the tragic death of Father Ambrose and the departure of General Saltykov shocked Ekaterina. Facing this disease more terrifying than smallpox, she fell into an unprecedented crisis. tough situation.

At this moment, a person stepped forward and asked the empress to allow him to go to Moscow to stop the spread of the epidemic and restore normal order.

This is the challenge the man seeks to regain his sense of self after years of inactivity.

The Queen accepted the request.

Always eager to make a difference, Orlov, stranded in St. Petersburg, was dismayed to see his younger brother Alexei and other officers winning praises in land and sea battles.

Ekaterina ordered Orlov to take full charge of Moscow's affairs, and Orlov assembled a group of doctors, military officers and administrative officials, led a team to Moscow overnight on September 9, and immediately took over work in disaster areas.

Facing the death rate of 700 people per day, he constantly sought the opinions of doctors, and at the same time used force to suppress the citizens.

Not only did the coercive measures achieve results, but during the course of the operation Orlov accompanied the doctor to the patient's bedside and personally supervised the distribution of medicines.

Under his direction, rotting bodies were removed from homes and streets.

He also promised to the serfs that anyone who volunteered to help in the hospital would be granted the status of a freeman. At the same time, he also opened an orphanage, opened a warehouse to distribute food, and distributed relief funds.

In two and a half months, he spent 10 rubles on food and clothing for the survivors, built shelters, burned the clothes of the dead and more than 3000 old wooden houses, and restored the compulsory violence that had caused many riots. Quarantine measures.

Orlov barely sleeps, and his dedication, fearlessness, and dedication inspire others.

The cumulative death toll in September was as high as 9, but it dropped to 2.1 in October, 10 in November, and 17561 in December. The measures are effective, and the arrival of cold winter has also played a certain role.

The easing of the situation in Moscow, coupled with the hope brought by the coming winter, has allowed Ekaterina to survive this period. She had previously worried that the epidemic would continue to spread to the northwest of St. Petersburg.

In Pskov and Novgorod, suspected bubonic plague outbreaks have occurred. The new capital located on the Neva River has also taken various preventive measures. Checkpoints have been set up on all roads entering the city. Staff are also extra cautious when handling mail, and autopsies of the dead have become mandatory.

Catherine feared that domestic and foreign reports and gossip would negatively affect Russia, and initially tried to suppress reports of mass death, popular panic, and violence.

When the epidemic was at its peak, in response to more inflammatory rumors that the government would bury patients alive, she allowed the government to publish an official report on the Moscow riots, which was reproduced in newspapers around the world.

Dismayed by the disaster, Catherine wrote to Voltaire of Father Ambrose's death:
"The famous 18th century has some bragging rights, look how far we have all developed?"

In a letter to former Communist Party Chairman General Alexander Bibikov she wrote:

"We have been suffering in this situation for a month. Peter the Great also went through this 30 years ago. Back then, he overcame all difficulties and got out of the predicament. Now we have to overcome the difficulties with honor."

In mid-November 1772, the epidemic eased, and Ekaterina allowed the people to hold collective prayers of thanksgiving.

Orlov returned to St. Petersburg on December 12, a moment of honor and glory.

He was awarded a solid gold medal with a hero of Roman mythology cast on one side and Orlov's portrait on the other side with the inscription "Heroes of Russia too".

She also ordered people to build a triumphal arch in the garden of Huangcun. The decorative inscription on the door frame reads "Dedicated to the great savior who saved Moscow from the plague".

Subsequently, in order to prevent the outbreak of the epidemic again, isolation measures were maintained along the southern border of Russia for the next two years, and the isolation measures were not lifted until the outbreak of war with Ottoman in 1774.

Although it was earlier than the outbreak of smallpox and the Black Death in history, the environment here awakened Peter's awareness of hygiene and building hospitals.

With him around, Orlov can naturally go to war to his heart's content.

And as far as he knew, the first hospital was opened in 1763 to train Russia's own physicians and pharmacists.

　ps: Another queen is Wu Zetian

　　
　
(End of this chapter)