Writer 1879: Solitary Journey in France

Chapter 635 The tearing apart of public opinion is the tearing apart of classes.

"He's gone mad!" the doctor snorted, slamming the newspaper down.

A lawyer standing nearby asked curiously, "Who's crazy?"

The doctor scoffed, "That novelist Sorel is now teaching us how to treat illnesses! What is he if not madman?"

The lawyer also picked up the newspaper and glanced at it: "What did he say?"

The doctor sneered: "He said cholera isn't miasma, but some kind of 'germs' in the water. He said to drink boiled water and eat cooked food."

He also said that bloodletting and enemas were useless, and that the patient should be given salt water. These were clearly the words of an amateur, the wild fantasies of a madman.

The lawyer nodded without saying anything. He didn't understand medicine, but if the doctor said so, it must be correct.

A businessman next to him picked up Le Petit Parisien and began to read the entire article carefully.

As he read, he looked up and said, "He mentioned a British doctor who proved the existence of the well more than thirty years ago. When the pump handle of the well was removed, the epidemic stopped."

The doctor said dismissively, "What do the British know about medicine? Their hospitals are worse than those in France, and their doctors are too poor to afford custom-made suits."

Don't forget, doctors all over Europe consider it an honor to study in Paris!

The merchant didn't refute, but lowered his head and continued reading.

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In the Latin Quarter, at the Sorbonne Medical School, the bell had just rung and students poured out of the classrooms.

In the corridor, several students were gathered together, each holding a copy of "Le Petit Parisien".

"Have you seen this?" A tall student waved a newspaper.

“I read it. It was written by Sorel,” said a student wearing glasses next to me.

"Is it true that bloodletting is ineffective?"

The student wearing glasses hesitated for a moment: "I don't know. But the professor was saying yesterday that bloodletting is the most effective way to clear heat toxins from the body."

"And what about that British doctor he mentioned? John Snow? Have you heard of him?"

The students looked at each other and shook their heads.

"The professor never mentioned it."

At the end of the corridor, an elderly professor with white hair walked over. The students immediately made way for him and bowed their heads in greeting.

The old professor stopped when he saw the newspapers in their hands: "What are you looking at?"

The tall student reluctantly handed over the newspaper: "An article by Mr. Sorel about cholera."

The old professor took the newspaper, glanced at it, then gave a cold laugh and handed it back to the student.

"A novelist dares to criticize medicine. If you believe this, you don't need to attend class."

After saying that, the old professor walked away with his hands behind his back.

Several students stood there, looking at each other in bewilderment.

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District 11, Obokamp Street.

The streets remained blocked off. Yellow police tape stretched across the intersections, where several health officials stood in grey coats, their faces covered with cloths soaked in medicine.

Inside the police cordon, the streets were deserted. Occasionally, one or two people in white coats would walk by; they were laborers collecting bodies from the hospital.

Outside the police cordon, a crowd had gathered. They were all residents from the neighborhood, workers, vendors, and washerwomen. They squeezed around the cordon, craning their necks to look inside.

A newsboy pushed through the crowd, waving a newspaper and shouting, "Le Petit Parisien! Written by Monsieur Sorel! How to prevent cholera!"

A middle-aged woman immediately took out her money: "Give me one!"

People around him also pulled out their money. The newspapers in the newsboy's hands were sold out in the blink of an eye.

Someone who couldn't read grabbed the person next to him and asked, "What does it say? What did Mr. Sorel say?"

Although Lionel moved away from here almost five years ago, his legend continues to circulate in the neighborhood, and he is regarded as the pride of the area.

Those who could read read aloud—

When the phrase "the water should be boiled before drinking" was read, the people around nodded repeatedly.

When the text read out, "Patients with diarrhea should drink salt water," an old woman wiped away tears: "If only someone had said this earlier, my husband might..."

When the text read out, "There might be a problem with those public wells," everyone looked at the well on the street corner.

The well is inside the cordon, so it's no longer possible to draw water from it. But before, everyone on the street had drunk from it.

“Mr. Sorel is right!” a porter shouted. “I’ve always wondered why so many people die on our street.”
We all drink from this well! The rich people in the Sixth Arrondissement drink water from the upper Seine and the municipal tap water, and not a single one of them has died!

"Yes! Yes!" Several people echoed.

"What about the bloodletting the doctor mentioned?" someone asked.

The person reading the newspaper continued: "Mr. Sorel said that bloodletting is useless, enemas and laxatives are useless, they are all ways to kill people."

The crowd quieted down.

Then a petite woman spoke up: "The day my husband was taken to the hospital, I heard the doctor bled him. He died the next day."

Another elderly woman said, "My neighbor did the same. After the bloodletting, her face turned as white as paper, and she died that very night."

"What do those doctors know! They live in good neighborhoods, drink good water, and don't have to worry about cholera! What about us?"
We can only drink water from this well, and they say we bring miasma and are unclean!

The crowd began to stir. Someone shouted towards the cordon, "Did you hear that? Mr. Sorel said it's a problem with the water! It's not our people!" The health department personnel on the other side of the cordon remained expressionless and motionless.

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In the afternoon, at the Seine provincial government.

Eugène Pubert sat in his office with two newspapers in front of him: Le Petit Parisien and Le Figaro.

He first read Le Figaro, which was still full of the same old platitudes from the Department of Health and doctors.

Then he picked up Le Parisien again, and immediately saw the headline "I appeal!" on the front page, and began to read the whole article.

After reading it, he put the newspaper down and remained silent for a long time. The secretary stood at the door, not daring to make a sound.

After a long silence, Eugène Pubert spoke up: "Have you heard of that British doctor, John Snow?"

The secretary shook her head: "No, Mr. Pobel!"

Eugène Pubert muttered to himself, "What if what he said is true?"

The secretary didn't know how to answer, so she could only remain silent.

Eugène Pubert continued to mutter to himself, "If cholera really did come from the water, if we were wrong to spray perfume and burn tar, then what should we do?"

The secretary still didn't dare to speak.

Eugène Pubert turned to look at him: “Go to the library, find that British doctor, his reports, his papers, his books, get them all for me.”

The secretary nodded with a sigh of relief: "Yes, Mr. Pobel!"

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Public opinion in Paris was completely torn apart by "Je au d'Au!"

Newspapers such as Les Parisien, Les News, Les Châteauneuf-du-Cité, Le Citizen, and Le Libération, all aimed at ordinary people and workers, published "I appeal!"

Some even added editor's notes, saying "Mr. Sorel spoke out for justice" and "It is worth reading carefully by every Parisian."

Almost all the elite newspapers, including Le Figaro, Le Gaul, Le Temps, and Le Debates, ignored the doctor's articles and continued to publish them.

These articles include "Proper Protection During Cholera", "Further Proof of the Miasma Theory", and "On the Importance of Bloodletting Therapy"...

Only Le Figaro published an abridged version of the article, which not only removed all criticisms of traditional remedies but also placed it in an inconspicuous corner of the fourth page.

The class differences behind public opinion have never been as clear as they are now.

The professors at the medical school couldn't sit still any longer.

That afternoon, a dozen or so leading figures in the Parisian medical community gathered in the medical school's main conference room.

"This Sorel is too arrogant! He's just a novelist, what gives him the right to tell us what to do with our treatment methods?"

"He says bloodletting is useless? Bloodletting has been used for two thousand years, since the time of Hippocrates. Countless patients have been cured by bloodletting over two thousand years, and now he says it's useless?"

"And that British doctor John Snow. I've never heard of him. He just made up a name and dares to say we're wrong?"

"We must respond! We can't let him spout such nonsense!"

"Yes! Respond! Let the public know that his words have no medical basis!"

They decided on the spot to write a joint article to be published in tomorrow's Le Figaro.

The article, written by the most senior professor of internal medicine, is titled: "Stop the Blasphemy of Sacred Medicine—To Mr. Sorel."

Medicine is a serious science with a history spanning thousands of years. Hippocrates, Galen, Paracelsus, and countless other sages laid the foundation for medicine.

Bloodletting therapy is one of the most important achievements of this!

Countless experiences from our predecessors have proven that cholera is a disease caused by excessive heat in the blood. Bloodletting can clear away the heat toxins, a consensus in the medical community.

Enemas can remove toxins from the intestines. Laxatives can accelerate the elimination of toxins. These are effective methods proven by numerous cases.

Mr. Sorel is not a doctor, has never attended medical school, and has never treated a patient. What gives him the right to criticize our treatment methods?
We urge the public not to believe the nonsense spouted by laypeople. Trusting doctors and trusting science is the correct approach to preventing and controlling cholera.

After the article was written, more than a dozen professors signed it, and then someone was sent overnight to the editorial office of Le Figaro.

Francis Magnal received the article and breathed a sigh of relief. The doctors themselves had come forward to refute it, saving Le Figaro from directly offending Lionel.

He immediately ordered: "Publish the full article on the front page tomorrow."

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That same afternoon, at the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris, Alice anxiously peered out from the platform.

A train from Calais slowly pulled into the station, steam billowing out as its wheels screeched as it braked.

The doors to the first-class carriages opened, and passengers disembarked one after another. Many of them looked tense, having learned from the newspapers about the cholera outbreak in Paris.

A short while later, Dr. Norman MacLeod, London's most famous literary editor, came down with a young girl.

Petty is back.

As soon as she saw Alice, her eyes welled up with tears, and she hugged Alice tightly.

"Sister Alice, how is the young master? How are my... my parents?"

Upon hearing the question that followed, Alice's eyes dimmed, revealing a look of reluctance.

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(End of this chapter)