xymnovel Chapter 119 The War Under the Microscope: The Dawn of Antibiotics
Chapter 119 The War Under the Microscope: The Dawn of Antibiotics
The industrialization of Daqin is progressing rapidly, with machines in factories roaring day and night. But this is accompanied by a surge in workplace accidents.
In the "External Injury Emergency Department" of the Royal Medical College of Qin, Xia Wuqie (the chief imperial physician of Qin, who, despite his advanced age, still works on the front lines) is worrying about a young blacksmith.
The blacksmith's arm was slashed by a gear. The wound itself had been stitched up nicely (using catgut), but three days later, it became swollen and red like a large bun, oozing yellow fluid. The blacksmith also developed a persistent high fever and was delirious.
"Another case of 'heat toxin entering the blood'." Xia Wuqie sighed and put down the willow-leaf knife in his hand.
In this era, surgery has begun. There is anesthetic, precision scalpels, and even alcohol for disinfection. But doctors still face an invisible and invincible enemy—infection.
No matter how perfect the surgery is, once the wound becomes inflamed and suppurates, there are only three things a doctor can do:
Branding iron burn (physical sterilization, extremely painful).
Drink bitter medicine soup (psychological comfort).
Please ask the family to prepare for the funeral.
"The Grand Master Wang said this is called a 'bacterial infection.'" Xia Wuqie looked at the small, spherical creatures (Staphylococcus aureus) moving under the microscope, his teeth itching with hatred. "He said it's like millions of soldiers gnawing at human flesh. But all we have are broadswords and spears (herbal medicine), we can't stop these invisible demons at all."
Nearby, a young apprentice was arranging petri dishes. He was Xia Wuqie's newly accepted disciple, named "Erniu".
"Master," Erniu sniffled, "are we just going to watch him die?"
"Do your best and leave the rest to fate." Xia Wuqie waved his hand helplessly. "Go and collect yesterday's bacterial culture dishes; we're going to throw them away."
Erniu is an honest child, his only flaw is that he's greedy.
Three days ago, a merchant from the Western Regions sent a rare item to the medical school to thank them for curing his athlete's foot: a Hami melon.
The melon was golden and plump, with a wonderful aroma.
Erniu got a quarter of it. He couldn't bear to finish it all at once, so he secretly hid a piece in a corner of the lab—right under the shelf with the pile of bacterial culture dishes. It was dark and damp there, a perfect place to hide snacks.
However, with so many patients these past two days, Erniu was so busy that he forgot about the melon.
Today, when he went to clean the petri dish, he suddenly smelled a strange odor.
"Oh no! My melon!"
Erniu let out a scream and pulled the cantaloupe from under the shelf.
It was no longer its tempting golden color; it was covered with a thick layer of bluish-green fuzz. It had become moldy.
"It's over, it's over, there's no food left." Erniu was heartbroken and tears streamed down his face.
Just as he was about to throw the moldy melon, along with the discarded petri dishes, into the trash can, Wang Jianguo (Chief Scientific Advisor of Daqin, who was there today to inspect the microscope improvement work) who was passing by suddenly stopped.
"etc."
Wang Jianguo's nose twitched. He didn't look at the melon, but instead looked at a petri dish that Erniu was about to dump.
Because of Erniu's carelessness, the moldy melon was placed right next to the open petri dish. The Penicillium spores on the melon drifted into the petri dish.
"Don't move!" Wang Jianguo shouted, startling Erniu so much that he almost smashed the plate over his face.
Wang Jianguo snatched the petri dish and held it up to his eyes for close examination.
The petri dish was covered with white colonies (the original staphylococci). But in the middle, there was a patch of green mold.
The miracle is this: around that patch of green mold, there was a clean, transparent ring.
There were no bacteria in that circle. It was as if the bacteria had encountered something terrifying; they all dissolved, died, and retreated.
This is the famous – antibacterial zone.
"I...my God..." Wang Jianguo's hands began to tremble, faster than someone with Parkinson's disease. "Fleming...Erniu, you're a genius! You're the savior of humanity!"
Erniu looked completely bewildered, still clutching the rotten melon in his hand: "Chancellor Wang, I... I just secretly kept a piece of melon... You don't need to make such a big deal out of it and call me humanity's savior, right? Fine, I won't eat it, okay?"
"Eat it? This stuff is even more precious than dragon meat!"
Wang Jianguo held the moldy petri dish as if it were the Imperial Seal of the State, and shouted at Xia Wuqie, "Old Xia! Stop preparing for that blacksmith's funeral! We've found a weapon that can kill the devil!"
For the next three days, the Royal Medical College entered a state of high alert.
Ying Zheng personally issued an edict: the laboratory must be sealed off. No one was to disturb Wang Jianguo's "medicine refining".
Although Penicillium was discovered, turning it into a drug that can be injected into the bloodstream is no less difficult than climbing to the heavens.
Wang Jianguo, along with a group of Mohist disciples and alchemists (who are now chemists), began a frantic extraction operation.
"Cultivation medium! Use corn steep liquor!" Wang Jianguo instructed (thanks to the corn brought back in Chapter 112), "That's Penicillium's favorite food!"
Hundreds of flat glass bottles filled the laboratory, containing fermented corn liquor, with a thick layer of bluish-green mold floating on top, like a disgusting carpet.
"Extract! Use rapeseed oil!"
"Acidify! Add acetic acid!"
"Reverse extraction! Add sodium bicarbonate!"
In an era without centrifuges or freeze dryers, Wang Jianguo used the most primitive, traditional methods. The laboratory was filled with a strange smell, a mixture of vinegar, cooking fumes, and fermented feed.
Finally, after discarding countless raw materials, Wang Jianguo had a small glass bottle in his hand.
The bottle contained several tens of milliliters of yellow, clear liquid.
This is the most basic penicillin filtrate. It has very low purity and many impurities, but it does contain that magical substance that can rupture bacterial cell walls.
"This..." Xia Wuqie stared at the bottle with a complicated expression. "Chancellor, if I may be so bold, this thing looks... really like... freshly collected boy's urine."
"No matter what it looks like, it can save lives." Wang Jianguo, with huge dark circles under his eyes and bloodshot eyes, said, "Now, we need a volunteer. Someone who is severely infected and has one foot in the grave, to verify its effectiveness."
Just then, a young eunuch rushed in in a panic.
"Something terrible has happened! Chief Minister Wang, Divine Physician Xia!"
"What's wrong?"
"Prefect Zhao...Lord Zhao...he's dying!"
The bedroom of Zhao Gao's residence.
A strong smell of rotting flesh filled the room.
Zhao Gao lay on the bed, his face ashen, his lips cracked, and his forehead covered in cold sweat. He had been unconscious for two days, his high fever unabated.
The incident stemmed from an embarrassing workplace injury.
As the "Director of the Daqin Aviation Bureau," Zhao Gao accidentally sat on an unfinished wooden crate while inspecting the airship base a week ago.
A rusty nail pierced precisely into his... left buttock.
It was originally just a superficial injury; the nail was removed, some plaster was applied, and Zhao Gao didn't take it seriously. After all, as someone who had undergone castration, he still had a certain tolerance for pain in his lower body.
But the problem was that the nail was too dirty, and Zhao Gao had been overworked recently because of making the movie (Chapter 115), so his immunity was low.
The wound quickly became infected, festered, and eventually developed into sepsis.
"Your Highness... Your Highness, wake up..." the little eunuch cried by the bedside. "You haven't seen the box office revenue from 'The King of Qin's Battle Song' yet..."
Xia Wuqie rushed in carrying a medicine box, lifted Zhao Gao's blanket, and gasped in shock.
The wound had festered into a large hole, the surrounding skin had turned purplish-black, and the swelling had spread all the way to the waist.
"Gangina." Xia Wuqie shook his head. "The poison has reached his heart. Unless we amputate this half of his buttock along with his leg, he... won't survive the night."
"Saw off the leg?" The little eunuch fainted from fright.
Just then, Wang Jianguo walked in, carrying the bottle containing "liquid gold" and a huge, specially made glass syringe from the Mohist school (with a hollow silver needle as thick as a toothpick).
"Don't saw. Let me try." Wang Jianguo's voice was calm and steady.
"What is this?" Xia Wuqie asked.
"Penicillin. It specifically kills this kind of virus."
Wang Jianguo used a syringe to draw up the yellow liquid.
At this moment, Zhao Gao, perhaps experiencing a final burst of energy before death, or perhaps frightened by the large needle, slowly regained consciousness.
He struggled to open his eyes and saw the yellowish thing in Wang Jianguo's hand.
"Your Majesty... Your Excellency..." Zhao Gao's voice was as weak as a mosquito's buzz, "Is this... is this to send me on my way? Why... why are you injecting me with urine..."
"This isn't urine, it's medicine." Wang Jianguo patted Zhao Gao's uninjured side of his buttocks. "Old Zhao, bear with it. This injection will either kill you or the bacteria."
"I...I won't..."
Zhao Gao wanted to resist, but he didn't even have the strength to move a finger.
"Pfft."
The large needle pierced the muscle.
"Awooo—!!!"
A piercing scream pierced the roof, startling the swallows on the beams into flight.
The tube of yellow liquid, stinging with pain, was pushed into Zhao Gao's body.
After the injection, Wang Jianguo didn't leave. He moved a stool and sat by Zhao Gao's bedside, keeping watch.
This was a high-stakes gamble. If the penicillin contained too many impurities and caused an allergic reaction, Zhao Gao would confess on the spot; if the dosage was insufficient and the bacteria developed resistance, Zhao Gao would also die.
An hour passed. Zhao Gao was still groaning.
Two hours passed. Zhao Gao stopped groaning and fell asleep.
Four hours later, it was dawn.
Xia Wuqie, who had been monitoring his temperature the whole time, suddenly exclaimed, "It's gone down! The fever's gone down!"
He reached out to touch Zhao Gao's forehead. The once burning hot temperature had now turned lukewarm.
Let's look at the wound again.
The foul-smelling yellow fluid that had been constantly oozing out had stopped, and the area of redness and swelling had visibly shrunk. The purplish-black edges were even beginning to show a healthy pinkish tinge.
"A miracle...this is a miracle!" Xia Wuqie knelt before Wang Jianguo, his hands trembling. "In my fifty years of practicing medicine, I have never seen such a powerful medicine! It's like chasing after the King of Hell to snatch a person away!"
Wang Jianguo let out a long sigh and slumped into his chair. He knew that history had been rewritten.
Just then, Zhao Gao on the bed stirred.
He turned over (carefully avoiding the wound), opened his eyes, and although his gaze was still somewhat unfocused, it was now clear.
"Water..." Zhao Gao called out hoarsely, "Give me... a roast chicken... I'm starving..."
Upon hearing the words "roast chicken," Wang Jianguo smiled.
"It's good that he can eat," Wang Jianguo said to the young eunuch. "Go and get him a chicken. Also, tell the kitchen not to give him any foods that might aggravate his condition these next few days. And he needs to get another acupuncture treatment every four hours."
Upon hearing "another injection," Zhao Gao's face instantly turned green, but when he looked at Wang Jianguo, there was no fear in his eyes, only gratitude as if he were seeing a second parent.
"Master Wang..." Zhao Gao said, tears streaming down his face, "From now on, my life... belongs to you. As long as you don't prick me with needles, I'll do anything you ask."
Three days later, Zhao Gao was able to lie on a stretcher and enter the palace to express his gratitude.
Inside the Qilin Hall.
Ying Zheng listened to Xia Wuqie's report, looked at the small bottle containing the yellow liquid, and fell into deep thought.
"You mean, this thing grew from a moldy melon?" Ying Zheng asked.
"Yes," Wang Jianguo replied, "Everything in the universe has its counterpart. Mold secretes toxins to kill bacteria in order to seize territory. We're just using the mold's weapon."
Ying Zheng walked up to the microscope. This was the latest model of optical microscope, with a magnification of 500x.
He leaned closer and glanced at the slide.
In the field of vision, the bacteria that were originally densely packed and menacing, after being dripped with penicillin, burst, dissolved, and disappeared like punctured balloons.
It was a massacre in the microscopic world. A war without gunpowder, yet one that concerned the lives of billions of people.
"Little G." Ying Zheng straightened up, his eyes deep.
[Yes, Brother Zheng.]
"I destroyed six kingdoms and killed millions of people, thinking that this was conquest."
Ying Zheng pointed to the microscope.
"But beneath this tiny mirror, a battle a billion times more brutal than the Battle of Changping is taking place every moment. These little things, if out of control, could wipe out humanity; but if under my control, they can save countless lives."
"I suddenly feel that my territory has expanded."
Ying Zheng opened his arms as if to embrace the void.
"Not only the land of Kyushu, nor only the clouds in the sky (airships), but even this invisible world of dust has now been incorporated into the territory of Great Qin."
"This is called—micro-sovereignty."
"Brother Zheng, you've crafted that phrase beautifully," Little G exclaimed. "With antibiotics, the average lifespan of the Qin Dynasty can increase by at least 20 years. This means more labor, more soldiers, and a longer reign. This is true immortality, a thousand times better than Xu Fu's elixirs."
"deliver an imperial order."
Ying Zheng turned around and resumed his imperial majesty.
"First, that apprentice named Erniu will be rewarded with a thousand taels of gold and given the title 'Green Mold.' But he needs to correct his habit of stealing melons; he'll be punished by cleaning the toilets for a month."
"Secondly, the Qin Royal Pharmaceutical Factory shall be expanded immediately. I intend to mass-produce this 'miracle drug.' From now on, every Qin soldier shall carry one in their bag when they go to battle."
"Third," Ying Zheng glanced at Zhao Gao, who was lying on the stretcher, a mocking smile on his lips, "Zhao Gao has done a good job testing the medicine. I think the scar on his buttocks looks like a medal. So I'll bestow upon him the title of... 'Marquis of Antun'."
As Zhao Gao lay on the stretcher, his expression was incredibly varied upon hearing the title.
I want to cry, but I also want to laugh.
"Thank you... thank you for your great favor! Long live the Emperor!"
As he walked out of the main hall, Wang Jianguo looked up at the sky.
Antibiotics were invented. A new era of medicine began in the Qin Dynasty.
But he knew this was just the beginning.
"Little G," Wang Jianguo thought to himself, "Penicillin isn't a panacea. Viruses, fungi, parasites, and the most terrifying thing...drug resistance."
"That's right," Little G responded. "The overuse of antibiotics can lead to superbugs. You need to control it."
Wang Jianguo nodded.
"However, at least in this era, we are invincible."
At that moment, an alchemist (nowadays called a bioengineer) rushed over.
"Master Wang! Something terrible has happened!"
"What happened now? Has Zhao Gao gotten into trouble again?"
"No! We followed your method to look at something else under a microscope. As a result, we saw many long-tailed worms swimming in the water sample from the back river!"
"Insects?" Wang Jianguo was taken aback, then realized, "Those are paramecia, or... bacteria."
"No, it's huge! And it's moving!" the engineer exclaimed in horror. "And... and a student drank untreated water and is now having diarrhea!"
Wang Jianguo sighed helplessly.
It seems that what needs to be popularized next is not antibiotics, but rather—"drinking boiled water".
"Let's go take a look. And while we're at it, let's put the 'Great Qin Patriotic Health Campaign' on the agenda."
As the sun sets, the technological tree of the Qin Empire illuminates another brilliant star. Although it originated from a moldy cantaloupe and was validated by a eunuch's buttocks, its light will illuminate humanity's long night in the fight against disease.