The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the border troops, it was overthrown and the Qing Dynasty was destro

Chapter 343 Dengchuan Epidemic Preparation Workshop

Under the guidance of clan chief Duan Rui, Yu Chengye finally saw with his own eyes the blisters and scabs on the hands of the local people that had not yet subsided.

He dared not delay and immediately sent someone back to Chengdu to report the news, describing in detail the discovery in Dengchuan.

Upon hearing the news, Jiang Han immediately dispatched eight imperial physicians, led by the vice-president of the court, a total of nine people, to Yunnan, traveling day and night.

The group traveled through mountains and rivers, spending nearly half a month before finally arriving in Dengchuan Prefecture.

To everyone's surprise, as soon as they entered the village, they were surrounded by the local Bai people.

Men, women, and children lined the road, looking at the group of imperial physicians from the capital with curiosity and awe.

Clan chief Duan Rui personally led the clan elders to greet them, showing great respect.

Although Bai villages also have their own doctors, such as herbalists, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, and even shamans like Duoxibo.

However, when faced with some chronic and intractable diseases, they are somewhat powerless.

Now that they have heard that the "miracle doctor" who treats emperors and princes has come in person, how could they possibly miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

The villagers then flocked to the hospital, bringing their elderly and children, hoping to receive medical treatment.

Seeing this situation, the deputy judge in charge of the team considered it a good opportunity to win over the local people and promote the king's rule.

So he decided to put aside his work for the time being and lead the imperial physicians to conduct a three-day free clinic in the village.

No one objected, and the clan leader, Duan Rui, was extremely grateful.

Soon, a temporary medical tent was set up.

The eight imperial physicians took turns seeing patients, using the four diagnostic methods of observation, auscultation, inquiry, and palpation, and administering acupuncture and medication, thus resolving many difficult and complicated diseases that had plagued the local people for many years.

In return, clan chief Duan Rui invited several elderly herbalists and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners from the clan to help with the task.

Taking this opportunity, the imperial physicians also took the initiative to exchange medical skills with local herbalists and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, and shared some mature medical theories and precious prescriptions from the Central Plains.

The Bai people's herbal healers did not keep their secrets to themselves, but instead offered some of their secret herbal remedies for treating bruises and sprains as a sign of their sincerity.

Both sides were in high spirits, and their relationship became much closer.

After three or four days of continuous treatment, once the local people had mostly dispersed, the imperial physicians were finally able to free up their hands to begin studying smallpox.

With the active cooperation of clan chief Duan Rui, the villagers brought out their own dairy cows to assist the imperial physicians in a thorough examination.

Soon, the group discovered some small, translucent blisters on the udders and chests of several cows.

After careful observation, the group initially determined that these blisters and the smallpox on the hands of the local people were the same type of disease.

If what the king says is true, then it must be caused by the same virus.

However, visual observation alone is far from enough; hands-on experimentation is necessary.

In order to thoroughly understand the relationship between smallpox and cowpox in terms of disease prevention, the vice judge divided the entire team into three groups and designed a rigorous verification process.

The first group of three people will have to test the law on themselves to see if cowpox can be transmitted from cows to humans.

The three imperial physicians personally learned and participated in the milking work, and had frequent contact with the cows suffering from cowpox.

Sure enough, after several days of intense work, all three of them developed blisters on their hands, accompanied by mild itching and low-grade fever.

The symptoms are very similar to smallpox, but the disease is a hundred times milder than smallpox.

The second step is to verify human-to-human transmission.

After the blisters on the hands of the first group of three imperial physicians matured, the other three pricked the blisters and extracted the clear, fluid-like pus from them.

They used the "dry seedling method," which involved making a small incision on the arm with a knife and then applying the extracted pus to induce pus formation. Soon, blisters also appeared on the hands of the three imperial physicians in the second group, with symptoms almost identical to those of the first group.

This result clearly demonstrates that cowpox can be transmitted from person to person, and that its virulence is relatively stable.

After initially proving the infectivity and safety of cowpox, the next crucial step was to test its effectiveness against smallpox.

Yu Chengye took this matter very seriously. He personally found an open space nearby and set it up as a temporary isolation zone.

In addition, he ordered that ten healthy prisoners be carefully selected from the hard labor camps in nearby state cities.

Yu Chengye promised them that as long as they participated in this smallpox vaccination experiment, their punishment would be reduced by one degree, and they would be spared three years of hard labor.

The laborers readily accepted the offer and rolled up their sleeves to get vaccinated against smallpox.

After the symptoms of the individuals subsided and they returned to their health, the vice-judge brought out a large, sealed box.

The box contained the undergarments worn by smallpox patients, which had been specially sourced from Kuizhou Prefecture.

The vice judge explained:

"This is the smallpox inoculation method, which is the most dangerous of the ancient inoculation methods and also the method that causes the disease to develop the fastest."

"If they can wear these clothes and still not get infected with smallpox, then it can be said that cowpox can prevent smallpox."

Thus, the ten laborers put on smallpox clothing and moved into a temporary camp, where they were strictly guarded by the Han army.

As the days passed, it took almost half a month for everyone to confirm that none of the laborers had shown any symptoms of smallpox!
This discovery thrilled everyone, and it is now almost certain that vaccination with cowpox can indeed prevent smallpox.

But at this moment, Yang Jia, who is always meticulous, raised a question:

"Colleagues, I think it's too early to draw conclusions."

"Do you think it's possible that the cowpox vaccine wasn't effective, but rather that the smallpox vaccine cells we received had been stored for too long, causing the toxins to dissipate?"

"In my opinion, we need to find a few people who have not been vaccinated against smallpox to conduct a comparative experiment."

Upon hearing this, everyone calmed down.

Yang Jia is right. If the toxicity has indeed subsided, then we cannot conclude that smallpox is effective.

The problem is, how can we confirm whether the toxicity on the acne scars is present?

Upon learning of this, Yu Chengye said that the matter was easy to handle. He immediately transferred two death row inmates from Dali and gave them the smallpox clothing, then placed them in solitary confinement.

As a result, the two death row inmates who had not been vaccinated against smallpox soon developed typical smallpox symptoms.

High fever, rash, pustules... and finally died suddenly in agony.

At this point, all doubts vanished.

The comparative experiments clearly demonstrated that the smallpox swabs still contained potent toxins, while the convicts who were vaccinated with cowpox were completely immune to the smallpox virus.

This result thrilled everyone; the method the king had suggested was indeed effective!

The vice judge personally recorded the entire process and then sent it to Chengdu by express horse.

Jiang Han's reply was also very simple: he ordered them to set up a vaccine preparation workshop in Dengchuan on the spot and begin large-scale production of smallpox vaccine.

Adhering to the principle of proximity, these smallpox vaccines will be given priority to the Han soldiers stationed in Yunnan.

Once we have enough experience, we will then promote it to Sichuan and Guizhou provinces.

(End of this chapter)