The Lucky Farmgirl

Chapter 2118 - 2093: Trial and Error

Manbao stood at the door and after looking for a while, said, "He’s developing the pox so quickly now; would it be too rash to stimulate the pox further?"

Imperial Doctor Lu frowned and thought for a moment, "Then he’ll probably have a fever all night. When I gave him acupuncture earlier, his skin was scorching hot. He’s likely unable to endure it. Let’s open a comprehensive prescription and slightly reduce the fever."

Manbao nodded, "Do not suppress the pustules."

"I know."

The two of them deliberated and decided on a prescription. It wasn’t hard to agree upon, as they had already developed several effective prescriptions in Xiazhou. Now it was merely a matter of adjusting according to the patient’s specific situation, perhaps altering the quantity of some ingredients.

The two wrote the prescription, and Manbao took the medicine to the shelf beside them to gather the herbs. These were medicines allocated from the Imperial Hospital, all ready to be used.

They were packed in boxes with the names of the medicines written on them.

Manbao weighed out a package of medicine and handed it to the servant, "Go brew the medicine."

Number Three recovered quickly; within two days, the pustules began to scab, and the scabs were estimated to fall off in less than two days.

Manbao contemplated and said, "How about using his scabs for the next experiment?"

Director Xiao and Imperial Doctor Lu couldn’t help but look at him, then glanced at the two patients on the adjacent beds who were already groggy and barely conscious. After sighing, they nodded, "He’s recovering well. Judging by his pox, the toxicity of the pustules should not be too high."

The situation of the other two was not good. It’s strange, this was the same batch of scabs, with nearly identical quantities, yet the conditions varied so greatly among the three.

Manbao frowned, "Because of age?"

Director Xiao and Imperial Doctor Lu looked at the still young Number Three, then at Number Two and Number One, and could only attribute it to this reason.

Imperial Doctor Lu said, "Judging by Xiazhou’s situation, the mortality rate of older people who contract smallpox is indeed higher, followed by adults, while children and adolescents have the lowest rates."

Manbao also nodded.

Director Xiao reflected, "In the future, inoculation should be done early, though who knows what the success rate will be. If everyone could be like Number Three, that would be great."

Manbao said, "There aren’t many criminals that are this young, right?" So where to find test subjects?

Director Xiao said, "They’re mostly among the implicated families of officials. We’d have to go to the Ministry of Justice and Punishments to find them, but inoculation is quite risky. Most implicated families are exiled or serve in the Imperial Household, so they might not be willing to take such life-threatening risks."

Manbao nodded slightly, let’s see the situation. If the toxicity of his scabs is lower, then the risk of the next inoculation won’t be high. We can then discuss with the Ministry of Justice and Punishments about letting them perform meritorious deeds."

Those who value their lives will naturally exist alongside those willing to take risks for fortune and honor.

Director Xiao and Imperial Doctor Lu did not object; however, it’s too early to propose this. The current urgent task is to save the lives of the two patients on the sickbed; otherwise, if two out of three die from smallpox, the mortality rate would exceed that of Xiazhou.

The three diligently worked to administer treatments—alternating acupuncture and medication—the condition of Number Two began to stabilize, with signs of improvement in the pustules, and the fever was gradually subsiding.

The trio breathed a partial sigh of relief, then focused most of their attention on Number One.

But they couldn’t determine whether it was due to his age or if his health was worse than the other two; his high fever persisted, and the smallpox couldn’t fully manifest. After two days, he was already delirious due to the fever.

Seeing this wasn’t working, Manbao had no choice but to prescribe medication to reduce the fever, yet at this point, it couldn’t effectively lower it, and even if suppressed, it would rebound afterwards.

Moreover, with smallpox not fully emerging, it would inevitably lead to other symptoms. They’ve witnessed too much of this situation in the past four months.

By the third day at noon, Imperial Doctor Lu, after checking the pulse of Number One who lay on the bed with a grey complexion, shook his head and went out, saying, "It’s of no use, he can’t be saved."

Manbao went in to take a look, couldn’t help but give him another set of acupuncture, but by nightfall, he was gone.

No one was seeing a dead person for the first time; they merely sighed in regret and recorded the necessary details.

Manbao glanced at the fresh pustules on his body, couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Number Three and Number Two, who were already completely recovered.

The two recoiled fearfully under his gaze, simultaneously stepping back.

Manbao put down the small notebook in his hand and said to Director Xiao and Imperial Doctor Lu, "We haven’t tested yet whether those who developed pox will indeed not get infected by smallpox again."

Imperial Doctor Lu said, "It’s common knowledge that those who’ve had pox won’t develop it again."

Director Xiao understood Zhou Man’s implication, "But their situation is somewhat unusual. Especially Number Three; his entire process from developing pox to recovery took less than five days."

Moreover, he had very few pustules and hardly suffered; honestly, Director Xiao himself was a bit apprehensive—what if the pox wasn’t effective and smallpox still infected him?

Manbao said, "There’s a way: try using the fresh pus from his pox."

Director Xiao glanced at the still-red smallpox on the recently deceased Number One, contemplating.

Soon, the three doctors took a piece of cloth and approached, lightly broke two fresh pustules on his body, dabbed the fluid, and then moved towards Number Three.

Number Three shivered, thinking they were going to insert it into his nose again; unexpectedly, Manbao grabbed his hand, rolled up his sleeve, and jabbed a thick needle into his arm, drawing blood, after which they rubbed the cloth on his wound.

Manbao said, "Whether it works, we’ll know in a couple of days."

Teacher Mo, upon learning about this, was quite pleased, "The reason you wanted to inoculate with a vaccine was to weaken the toxicity of smallpox so that immunity could be achieved without danger, wasn’t it?"

He said, "Based on the pulse case you provided for Number Three, his condition isn’t even considered good yet. The best smallpox vaccine I know, apart from a slight pain during injection, causes no discomfort. Those successfully inoculated will have a single pockmark left as a sign of immunity."

Manbao listened with great interest and asked, "Is this the cowpox method mentioned in books?"

Teacher Mo laughed, "According to records, cowpox is much safer than human pox. Unfortunately, I’ve searched for a long time without finding detailed preparation methods. However, consulting some colleagues, they all believe that cowpox inoculation must have undergone several generational cultivations, at least to the second generation, significantly reducing toxicity."

Manbao asked, "Is it like the water vaccine method with human pox, using ground scabs to make the vaccine?"

Teacher Mo shook his head, "I suspect it’s using the pus, which works faster. If what is described in books is true, then cowpox is much safer than human pox, and the smallpox virus cultivated over generations has little toxicity. Inoculation should directly use the vaccine, though it’s a pity there are no injections available; perhaps you can apply the vaccine directly to a scratch like today?"

Manbao pondered, "Since it can’t be clearly defined, we’ll have to test one by one."

Teacher Mo agreed with this view, as science is inherently about constant trial and error.