Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 491

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 491
At that moment, Sama-hye raised her hand briskly and spoke.
“I’ll search the livestock pen for cattle infected with cowpox!”
“Excellent, the sooner we begin, the better.”
They always said the beginning was the hardest part.
Energized by the atmosphere Sama-hye created, the other doctors began volunteering their own tasks one by one.
“Then we should have the martial artists isolate all the doctors who’ve been exposed to the patient.”
“I’ll prepare tonics. The patient needs to endure this first.”
“We’re running low on soap. We’ll need to prepare a large quantity of it….”
Thank goodness.
I cast a grateful glance toward Sama-hye.
She responded by curling her lips and waving a hand dismissively, as if to say not to worry about it.
I was grateful.
That was when it happened.
“You there! Is anyone here?”
The Podomae, his deputies, and the guards began pushing their way in forcefully.
I spun around in alarm to find them all staring at me with menacing expressions.
“Visitors must wash their hands before entering.”
But they weren’t about to listen to that.
“We received a report that an epidemic has broken out here!”
“It didn’t originate here.”
“Regardless, is there a smallpox patient here?”
“…Yes, there is.”
No isolation, you fools. We need to perform variolation!
* * *
The Hwa Empire had countermeasures against epidemics.
The basic response included isolation measures—those infected with plague could not leave their homes and could not meet others—as well as controlling streets and even entire villages.
There was even a history of local officials with violent temperaments burning entire villages to the ground, killing everyone inside.
In severe epidemic situations, entire cities were quarantined, which paralyzed the surrounding economy.
Regardless, humanity had long understood that isolation was the foundation of epidemic control.
They understood it well enough.
Podomae Jang-hak was no exception.
‘Damn it. Why here of all places? Baekrin Uiseon is favored by Prince Ju-wang. What do I do?’
Carelessly antagonizing Baekrin Uiseon would only upset Prince Ju-wang, resulting in nothing but loss for him.
The problem was that if the epidemic spread and many people died, it would affect his official position in the future.
‘And of all times, the Patriarch is here in person?’
If it were just an ordinary medical institution, he could manage it with some coaxing, but his opponent was Baekrin Uiseon—and the Patriarch himself.
Baekrin Uiseon was no political lightweight; they couldn’t be taken lightly.
I called the Podomae to a quiet place and sat him down, then spoke calmly.
“To get straight to the point, Baekrin Uiseon has made considerable progress in researching smallpox. If you entrust this matter to us, we should be able to control the spread of smallpox to a significant degree.”
“Is treatment possible?”
“Beyond symptomatic treatment, we too are limited. However, what we can do is make prevention possible.”
“Prevention is possible? Then you’re referring to variolation. If that’s the case….”
Variolation—even in this era, there exists a method to prevent smallpox.
One would place pus or scabs from an infected person into the nose, or wear the undergarments of a smallpox patient to deliberately contract the disease beforehand.
While this method supposedly prevented smallpox, since it used the pathogen itself, those with weak immunity often died.
And there was another danger besides that.
“Yes, there have been cases where the very method used to prevent smallpox actually spread it instead. However, what I wish to propose is a different approach.”
Let me speak plainly.
If I were to obscure the matter here by invoking superstition or faith to suit this era, it would only become more absurd.
What I proposed was simple.
“The Baekrin Uiseon has obtained information that those infected with cowpox have never contracted smallpox again, and we have conducted investigations multiple times to verify this.”
“Do you have documentation?”
“It’s at our headquarters. However, bringing it here would require considerable time.”
“….”
The Podomae Jang-hak fell into thought.
No orders had come from above, and if he were to trust merely a doctor’s words and attempt to ward off smallpox only to make matters worse, his career would be finished.
“I cannot allow….”
“Haha… before you refuse, take a look at this.”
I pulled out a golden bracelet from my hand as if I had been waiting for this moment.
The brilliantly gleaming insignia of an imperial inspector pierced his eyes.
“Gasp…?! That is…!”
At the sight of the Emperor’s symbol, he hastily straightened his robes and bowed respectfully.
“This official, Podomae Jang-hak Ma Jong-hak, greets the Direct Imperial Inspector.”
“I… truly wished to avoid using this, and I apologize.”
I spoke with a regretful expression.
“Should you follow my instructions and fail, the responsibility falls upon me. Do you understand, Podomae Jang-hak? Should there be any censure later, you need only state that it was done under the sole authority of the imperial inspector.”
My expression was not arrogant.
Rather, I appeared anxious, like someone who had just swiped a high-interest credit card in revolving mode.
“You can assist me, yes?”
The Podomae Jang-hak bowed as if he had never spoken arrogantly.
“I shall obey your command!”
“Well… yes. Please don’t mention this to the guards. You may record it in official documents.”
“Yes!”
Now the die was cast.
The Podomae Jang-hak would handle matters using my stakes, but if Hangzhou descended into chaos, it would be my own neck on the line.
The Gold Silver King was not the sort to say, “Hehe, you made a mistake? Do better next time,” when the lives of his people were at stake.
“Send me several scribes while you’re at it.”
“For what purpose?”
“Since we’ve come this far, we must document whether cowpox can treat smallpox and leave that as a treatise as well.”
Since I’m already gambling, I might as well see it through to the end.
* * *
First, I need to purchase a cow infected with cowpox and immediately inoculate the exposed Medical Officers.
However, the Baekrin Uiseon Medical Officers, who had spent their entire lives learning only how to treat patients, found it difficult to know how to obtain a cow or even confirm that cowpox was a genuine disease.
Thinking we should head to the cattle market, the Medical Officers filed out in small groups.
Then, by chance, I encountered a familiar face from the slums.
“Honestly, we’ve never done anything like this before. What if we asked someone who lives here about cows?”
At one Sang Ui-won’s suggestion, both the Middle-Aged Men and Ha Uiwon nodded in agreement.
When I caught the familiar face and explained the situation, he immediately nodded.
“A cow? Of course, we should help.”
“Hey! Chil-meok!”
“What is it?”
Someone came running from a distance while moving cargo.
“The Divine Physician needs to find a cow infected with cowpox.”
“What? Then we should find one. Ah, but that means going to the cattle market… That place is where you get robbed blind. I’m not sure if you’ll find one there.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to introduce a place where they raise cows with cowpox?”
“That’s right. That would be better~”
The slum dwellers each shared stories—whose cow had cowpox, whose didn’t—debating whether it was better to just go to the cattle market after all, putting their heads together for quite some time.
They all looked as serious as if it were their own business.
Eventually, a conclusion was reached.
“How many do you need?”
“For now, we need one immediately, and more would be better in the future.”
“Here, my grandmother has an uncanny eye for cattle. If you go with her, it’s sure to work out.”
“But where would the grandmother be…?”
At that moment, a young man from the slums came carrying an elderly woman on his back.
“Grandmother Cheol has arrived!”
Waaaaah!
“What, you crazy fools shouting and carrying on in broad daylight. Ridiculous.”
Grandmother Cheol spoke through a mouth with sparse front teeth.
“Why would you buy a cow with cowpox? You should buy a healthy cow. Are you trying to get swindled?”
The Medical Officers responded urgently to Grandmother Cheol’s words.
“We need a cow infected with cowpox to prevent smallpox.”
“Cowpox…? Smallpox? Why would you…?”
Grandmother Cheol pondered for a long while with her wrinkled eyes before speaking.
“Ah… now that I think about it, I caught cowpox when I was young, and I never got smallpox after that. Same with Seo-hang from next door. There… there was talk long ago that if you caught cowpox, you wouldn’t catch smallpox, but nobody believed it so I forgot about it too. But how does a young Medical Officer know that?”
“The Patriarch said it was necessary.”
“Hmm…”
Finally, a gleam of clarity returned to Grandmother Cheol’s previously clouded eyes.
“That child is looking for it…? Then I should help find it. What do you need?”
One Medical Officer leaned forward in urgency.
“I’ll carry her from now on.”
“Goodness, do you know how heavy I am? You shouldn’t….”
“It’s fine.”
Grandmother spoke as the large Doctor carried her on his back.
“So I just need to buy a cow with cowpox cheaply, right?”
“We need to buy it quickly.”
“Quickly?”
Grandmother fell into thought before speaking.
“Then I should ask Childeok’s neighbor. That household mentioned they needed money anyway, so if I speak well, I could buy it cheaply. Childeok lives in a better area, so it’s far from here.”
“That’s fine.”
I never expected to meet a cattle expert in the slums like this.
The Doctors marveled inwardly.
‘The kindness I showed to Gangho returns to me like this.’
Among the group were also Doctors who had cursed the slum dwellers behind their backs at that time.
Embarrassed, they couldn’t lift their heads, their faces flushed red.
‘It’s something to be grateful for. Truly grateful.’
Then a large young man spoke.
“Goodness, the Doctor can’t even carry one grandmother. Here, let me do it!”
And he forcibly took Grandmother on his back.
“Th-thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Carrying people isn’t about strength—it’s about technique. If you do it that way, you’ll hurt your back. You became a Doctor and don’t even know that?”
“Oh my, Yonseok. I liked the Doctor’s back better than yours.”
“Grandmother, you’re impossible! Really!”
He grumbled and led the way ahead.
The Doctors found his manner tearfully moving.
* * *
Vaccination using cowpox itself is simple.
One merely needs to infect someone with cowpox.
According to Master Jeong Yak-yong’s writings, one should scratch the cowpox lesions from a cow with a needle, insert it into a person’s arm, and then rub the cow’s pus or scab over it.
In some places, they would make a cross incision with a blade and rub the pus and scab into it.
Of course, this method requires caution against other infections like tetanus.
However, either way, this era is sufficiently capable of performing it.
I had merely improved upon it and prepared several needles with a forked, two-pronged tip.
These were needles used in vaccination methods on Earth in the past, which the Medical Professionals called preventive needles.
They weren’t difficult to make, and compared to syringes, the cost was reasonable, so the unit price was acceptable.
‘I’m worried whether this will work.’
Even in Korea, this method was known, but the suppression of Western learning once caused significant disruption to vaccination, or rather, cowpox inoculation.
Britain, which developed cowpox inoculation, experienced the same.
The reason Britain discovered cowpox inoculation first yet was the number one country for smallpox outbreaks was nothing else.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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