656: Chapter 321 Title Sir_2 656: Chapter 321 Title Sir_2 “Sounds much better, at least better than cannons,”
Arthur, with his pipe in his mouth, said, “It seems like having you involved in drafting the Liverpool urban reconstruction plan was indeed a wise decision.
Regardless of how the Treasury and Parliant view this docunt, at least you’ve gained experience from it.”
Arthur and Louis were chatting when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a young Civil Servant in his twenties walking down the steps of the Lord Chancellor’s office.
It was Edwin Chadwick, private secretary to Lord Brougham, the High Chancellor.
Chadwick was about to get on his carriage when he suddenly noticed soone looking at him; he turned his head and t Arthur’s gaze.
“Inspector Hastings?”
Arthur, with a smile, raised his hand in greeting, “We et again.”
Seeing the stitches at the corner of Arthur’s eye, Chadwick felt sowhat apologetic.
He turned and said, “Your business in Liverpool, it has been the talk of Whitehall.
Sending you to oversee smuggling matters and cholera prevention with your life at risk, without providing sufficient manpower, was indeed an oversight on our part.”
“No need for apologies.”
Arthur said with a smile and a wave, “It’s not uncommon among the officers of the Royal Navy and Army to be missing an arm or a leg.
Duke Wellington has lost hearing in one ear, and Admiral Nelson also lost an arm early on.
I am not a soldier, but as a policeman, I have long been ready for the possibility of injury.”
Though Arthur spoke in this way, Chadwick, as one of the main persons who proposed sending Arthur to Liverpool, ultimately felt a bit ashad.
He assuredly pounded his chest, “The assassination has already happened, regretting the past won’t help now.
But I assure you, we will severely punish those behind it.
That scar on your face is not only yours, it belongs to us as well – the Lord Chancellor’s office, the Ho Office, the Customs, and the Central Health Committee.”
Arthur, seeing Chadwick’s earnestness, didn’t feel any particular emotion of gratitude.
After all, he knew the really influential people were not here.
Even though Chadwick couldn’t speak for the Lord Chancellor’s office, as a close associate of Lord Brougham, he naturally had his own value.
Arthur then said, “Edwin, I am extrely grateful for your help.
But at this juncture, I believe we should prioritize cholera prevention.
The docunts I sent from Liverpool a while back, has Lord Brougham received them?”
“That report?” Chadwick said with a nod and a smile, “It was written in great detail, with logical argunts for the hypotheses about cholera pathogens and suggestions for new treatnts.
Lord Brougham, after reading it, imdiately organized dical experts on the Central Health Committee to study and discuss it.
It’s just…”
Arthur, anticipating this, inquired, “The dical authorities don’t approve of the saline treatnt thod?”
“You guessed it,” Chadwick said, sowhat embarrassed.
“Although they don’t approve, with Lord Brougham’s persuasion, the doctors finally reluctantly agreed to include the saline treatnt in the new edition of the ‘Cholera Prevention Manual.’ However, before that, they need the pioneer of this treatnt to co to London to answer a few minor questions in person.”
“What questions?”
Chadwick, flipping through his eting notes, listed them, “First, why is the concentration of the saline injection 0.9%?
Second, why must alcohol be applied to clean the skin before injection?
Third, why must the needle and syringe be boiled for 10 minutes before use?
Fourth…”
Arthur had thought that the confiscated paper by Hadcassle was enough to help explain the Committee’s questions.
But listening to this, he realized that although the Committee did not challenge Hadcassle’s theory, the 21st-century common sense questions he had added were now being scrutinized one by one.
If the Committee insisted on asking Arthur why, he could only tell them, the first was taught in middle school biology class.
As for the second and third, it was because the doctors he saw in the hospital always did it this way.
While these are common knowledge in the 21st century, explaining the reasoning behind them in an era where the concept of disinfection wasn’t well-understood was indeed a big problem.
From Arthur’s observations of hospitals, if it wasn’t for cholera’s arrival, and had the miasma theory and contagion theory factions not been at loggerheads over the cause, most hospitals would not even change to a clean bedsheet every day.
In normal tis, whether it’s the upscale Royal hospitals or the cheap street clinics, all their operating rooms looked just as Darwin described in his “forsake dicine for priesthood”—blood and filth everywhere.
Combined with the terrifying tools like bone saws laid out on the operating tables, if you walked in there rashly, you would not be able to tell if you were in a hospital or a at processing workshop.
What made it worse was Haidksal, due to dical ethical issues, absolutely could not be pushed into the spotlight; otherwise, the bigwigs of the Liverpool Committee would undoubtedly bring up his unauthorized autopsies.
If it ca to that, then forget promoting the saline treatnt thod, “The Lancet” and “London Journal of dicine” might just have to dedicate a special issue to dical ethics to put him on trial.
User Comments
0 comments from readers