“Yes,” Lucas sighed in exasperation as he explained the current topic once again. “I will be taking samples from sick people while categorizing what kind of illness they are suffering from, and then I will be using some of those samples to make you resistant or immune to actually becoming infected.”
“Lord Hero,” Volen was frowning, granted he had rarely stopped since his liege was killed in front of him, but today it was even more pronounced. “This does not sound safe, or even like a good idea.”
“It is similar to the process of inoculation,” Lucas sighed again. He had been doing that a lot lately. “Given your level of science I would imagine that concept is floating around somewhere right? The difference is that I won’t need to spend time identifying different strains of viruses and will instead be damaging the actual virus to produce results.”
“But if you fell sick…”
“Yeah, that will probably happen.” Lucas admitted, of course he would if he went around visiting a ton of sick people and swabbing them right? Eventually he would catch something. “But I already gave you a list of things to do in that case, so just follow the script and I should recover.”
“I don’t think…”
“Good, let me do that for you.” Lucas had been met with incredible resistance as he laid out his plans for introducing vaccination to the Duchy. This world apparently did not have the idiom “hair of the dog that bit you” and so he was not even able to use that to explain how the process worked. For fucks sake, artificial immunization had been recorded as early as the sixteenth century in China, with some records claiming that it had been going on centuries before that. But Lucas supposed there were still idiots in his own, modern world who believed vaccines to be dangerous, so perhaps he shouldn’t be so harsh.
And to be fair, what he was doing was dangerous for both him and the patients. The first vaccinations that did not involve using similar, but weaker, diseases to stimulate the immune system involved damaging the infectious material to weaken it considerably. If Lucas fucked up he could end up causing a pandemic instead of granting immunity to it. However, he had a double doctorate in genetics and virology. Lucas had decades of specialized education in this field compared to Louis Pasteur who had to discover it all for himself.
Attenuating viruses, weakening bacteria, the methods to produce and replicate vaccines… This was all ancient history to Lucas, part of the basis of modern virology. Lucas had tried to explain some of this, but only Julian really seemed to have an idea what he was talking about. Terrasin might have as well, but she seemed to enjoy tormenting Lucas in conversations sometimes…
“Do you have the gloves and mask I asked for?” Lucas turned to Volen, who produced a set of cloth masks and gloves. It as perfect as what he would have in a hospital setting, but it would do for now. They had also prepared soap and a stove to heat water. Just because Lucas accepted that there was a strong chance of him getting sick did not mean that he wouldn’t take every method to prevent it. In particular, pneumonia was a concern. Until he discovered a suitable antibiotic it would be quite dangerous for him to develop that infection.
They were set up in a abandoned house in the slums that had been cleaned up for this purpose. Announcements had been made that anyone who showed up here would receive free treatment, at least up to a point. For now, it mostly involved correcting superstitions and making certain that people rested correctly.
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The amount of sick people who showed up was stunning, Lucas had not expected this many patients and had to start dealing with them as groups. It soon became apparent that the number was somewhat inflated by family members who had carried the actual sick person to the house, but it was still a staggering number.
The other unexpected arrivals were the local ‘physicians,’ who had been a headache for Lucas until he had the soldiers round them up. They were still recommending animal dung as treatment and protesting when Lucas had the stopped entirely. They also argued against his prohibitions against bloodletting, mercury, fumigation, aromatherapy, trepanning, and the use of most herbal remedies. Though Lucas threw them for a curveball when he heartily recommended the use of clove oil for a whole variety of illnesses.
While not particularly effective compared to many other substances, clove oil did have antibacterial and antifungal properties. So the realizing that the plant was found in this world was a major discovery for Lucas. He made sure to send a note to Heidall to make certain cloves were farmed as much as possible.
All the rest of the treatments were tossed out the window. Much to the chagrin of the ‘physicians.’
“No, there is not a demon spirit in the ladies head,” Lucas argued with one of them about a lady who seemed to have some form of epilepsy. Lucas had no idea how to treat it, but at the very least he could stop these idiots from cutting her head open. “It is a neurological condition, and frankly treating it is mostly impossible currently. If you give me some time I can make a few conjectures about reducing symptoms, but it will be guesswork at best. It isn’t my field of expertise, and last I recall hearing about advancements in its treatment we had yet to fully eliminate symptoms.”
“Then at least let us draw her blood,” the old, white bearded physician argued. “Even if you don’t believe the spirit is there, we should at least weaken it and draw out the illness.”
“Guards, quiet the crowd.” Lucas ignored the man, “I need to make an announcement.”
“What are you-”
Lucas held up his hand to silence the old man, he didn’t have time for this bullshit. It took some time to quiet the crowd, but Lucas was able to address the crowd from the top of the house.
“Listen and listen well!” Lucas shouted, “Bloodletting cures almost nothing and is more likely to contribute to your death than health! As of this point, bloodletting is illegal. Anyone caught performing the practice will be imprisoned. Further, all of the practices listed below will carry the same penalty! I am not going to let you idiots die for your superstitions.”
Dropping down Volen asked, “My Lord, do you have the authority to make do that?”
“I will have Heidall make it official when I see him next.” That was the reason for replacing the Duke after all. But Heidall was not just a yes-man blindly agreeing to everything Lucas said. He always asked why, and did his best to understand the explanations, often with Julian’s help. He was, in Lucas’s opinion, going to be an excellent ruler.
“Today’s chaos is getting to me,” Lucas muttered. “I can barely keep track of this mess. I never appreciated hospital administration until today, how the hell do they deal with this?”
“Administration is underappreciated in general, Lord Hero.” Volen said from the side, clearly it was something that he understood quite well.
“I guess I will have to be more cognizant of that in the future.” Lucas replied, “The food and water is being distributed?”
“Yes My Lord, and your ‘samples’ are being collected.” Volen had a distasteful look on his face. Well, Lucas supposed that most people here wouldn’t be comfortable with what he was doing.
“Wonderful.” Lucas sat back in a chair, exhausted. “Today was too fucking long…”
Unfortunately, Lucas did not have time to rest. He had to get the samples incubating before long. Honestly, he had already thrown good practice out the window along with the witch-doctor treatments of the physicians. But he did not have the equipment to properly care for things, so he would just have to make do.
He had samples of many diseases and had even discovered the presence of an antibiotic in this world, with this, his work was just begining.