Nineteenth Century Medical Guide

Chapter 145 142. Source
The paper bag brought by the maid was not big, and the outside looked very clean, with no marks or logos, only a string made of horsetail hair was wrapped around the opening, and then sealed with red wax.At first glance, the paper bag is similar to the paper bag used to buy vegetables in the manor kitchen, and the color is slightly different.

The old butler was in charge of the daily purchases at home, and had received many paper bag packages, but now he could only stand in a daze at the stairs, not daring to go forward, not daring to pick them up, let alone knowing what to do.

The audience was silent, until he finally couldn't help asking: "Inside, what's inside?"

"I, I don't know either."

"Open it and see."

"This is inappropriate." The maid felt very uneasy, holding the paper bag trembling slightly, and took two steps down: "Mr. Butler, you should come."

"Me? I'll come."

The housekeeper stared at the paper bag approaching, not knowing whether to pick it up or not.At this time, Werther, who was staying in the crowd, stood up, strode forward and asked, "Where is the postman who came to deliver the goods?"

"Still at the door, we didn't let him go."

Witte glanced at his two colleagues, squeezed past the butler, and took the bag.Untied the string and opened it, and there was a cold hand lying quietly inside.Because the weather has warmed up at the end of April, in order to prevent moisture from ruining the paper bag, the other party also put some grease on the bottom.

"TMD! Take me to see him!"

Werther threw the bag to the butler, and ran out of the basement with his colleagues and maid.

The old housekeeper didn't dare to take a closer look, and when he took over the bag, he screamed strangely, hurried back to the crowd, and handed the bag to the forensic doctors and surgeons.Musil successfully took the paper bag, and slowly took out the cold right hand: "Everyone, take a look."

"This incision seems to be made with an ordinary scalpel."

"But the flesh color is a bit rosy, not as white as before."

"Color does make a big difference."

Musil was one of the few professional forensic doctors present, and he looked at the corpse with a more tricky eye: "The knife edge is very flat, and the entire cut surface looks smooth, with no traces of dragging back and forth. The edges of the bones are slightly worn and broken. The sign should be a cheap bone saw."

"Is that all you can see?"

"Wait." Musil frowned, and suddenly asked behind him, "Mr. Steward, how tall is Mr. Albert?"

"."

"Mr. Butler???"

"What about people?"

At this time, in the study on the third floor of the manor, Marshal Ludwig was sitting at the table in a daze.

He was originally the commander-in-chief of Venice, the last Italian territory occupied by Austria. He was over sixty years old and had several old injuries on his body.I thought I would enjoy a peaceful time in Venice, and in a few years I could retire and enjoy my old age.

Who knew that a promotion order and transfer order brought him back to Vienna.

It was already hard to be separated from his wife, and now that his son is missing, Ludwig's mood fell to the bottom: "Your Majesty, I don't think I am suitable to be a field marshal at all."

Franz didn't expect such a change, so he could only explain: "Albert must have gone to play somewhere else, it's okay."

"It's been five full days."

Ludwig knew his son very well. Although he was a bit playful, he was still an officer, and he was much more excited to face the war than his own old man: "Let me tell you straight, he told me this time. I came here just to earn military merits on the front line. It is impossible not to go home for five days in a row, even when Xian Fu was at home."

Franz also knew that things were getting worse. There was a high probability that his nearly 40-year-old son would die.

As for who is doing the tricks, it can only be investigated by the police and intelligence organizations. All he has to do now is to stabilize the old marshal: "Your Excellency, you have fought all the way and have extremely abundant combat experience. Now the empire is in a rivalry with Prussia , I can’t live without you.”

Ludwig has an outstanding reputation and is deeply loved by his subordinates.Young people do not have his prestige, and old people may not be able to withstand front-line combat. It is quite normal for him to be appointed as the commander-in-chief of the entire army at this moment.

The old marshal knew that there was no one more reliable than himself in the army: "My only hope now is to find my son, but no matter how I look at it, I'm afraid it's over."

"Your Excellency the Marshal, if something really happened to Albert, it is very likely that the Prussians did it."

Franz knew that it would be useless to persevere, so he simply changed his strategy, turned his hope into despair, and ignited the old man's fire of revenge: "The numbers of Pu-Austrian troops are not equal, and the quality of training is also inferior. They can only rely on this indiscriminate means to interfere with the coming war."

"I'm already a useless old man. It's fine to come after me, so why go after my son?"

"You are the spiritual pillar of the whole army."

"That's not what my waist says." After that, he moved the pg slightly to change himself to a more comfortable sitting position, "With my current body, I have long lost the vigor of the past."

"In exchange for a more calm judgment and wise front-line deployment." Franz hastily flattered, "Modern warfare no longer requires generals to rush to the front to fight, but to stay at the headquarters to dispatch troops .”

Seeing that the king did not give him a chance to resign, Ludwig could only continue to focus on his son: "Your Majesty, you must find my son."

"Definitely!" Franz sat on the sofa and took a sip of tea, "I have handed over this matter to the Vienna Police Station to investigate, and the Intelligence Bureau will help. With these professionals, I think it will be settled soon. There will be news from Albert."

As soon as the words fell, there was a knock on the door: "Master, it's me."

"Enter."

The butler's face was pale, and he held back his slightly trembling hands, and opened the door: "My lord, His Majesty the King is here too."

"Those doctors have come to a conclusion?"

"They said it was indeed human flesh."

"It's really human flesh."

Ludwig had already had a bad premonition, but after hearing the conclusion, he still couldn't help but feel dazed.He pressed his fingers violently on his forehead, forcing himself to stay awake: "From their point of view, will it belong to Albert?"

The housekeeper shook his head: "This, it seems that I didn't say that."

"I didn't say why you came up here?" Ludwig was a little anxious, "You have to figure out the situation, 'is it Albert' is the focus now!"

"."

"Quickly ask!!!"

"But." The housekeeper licked his dry lips and said, "But just now, a postman sent another package. It's still the same bag and string, and it's in it."

"Stay what?"

"Yes, it's a hand."

Ludwig was a little bit broken, and it was hard to believe that there would be such a crazy guy in this world: "Could it be that you want to cut him up, cut him into pieces, and send someone home."

At this moment, the old marshal's heart hurt more than the lower back he had endured for many years. There were tears in his eyes, and there was obvious choking between his words.

"The two sheriffs Del Rio and Werther have gone to question the postman, and they should be able to find some clues."

Ludwig wiped his face with his hands, wiped away the tears that fell down, and stood up bearing back pain: "Take me to see."

Just when the two were about to leave the study, they bumped into Musil and Kavi who had just gone upstairs: "Your Excellency Marshal, Your Majesty the King, I am the forensic doctor of the Vienna Police Department, and I am in charge of the investigation of the remains of this mysterious disappearance. He's Kavi, yes."

"Dr. Carvey, we meet again."

Franz finally felt better when he saw him, and wanted to help introduce Ludwig, but the old marshal seemed to have heard of his name a long time ago: "The youngest surgeon among the military doctors, the last time he was in the Military and Political Department I've seen it, let's quickly tell your conclusion."

Ludwig was very nervous, and Musil didn't dare to neglect, and said directly: "The piece of meat three days ago was human flesh, but we really can't make a conclusion about whether it is Mr. Albert. Now we can only judge it from the skin and hair." It can be seen that it should be a male, the skin on the inner thigh is damaged, the muscles are strong, and he often rode horses during his lifetime."

"Albert does like riding horses."

Franz defended: "No, there are many people who like to ride horses, and that alone does not prove it."

"The whole of Austria can ride a horse, and how many men are related to me? Who else is there besides Albert?"

"What about the hand? I heard from the steward that someone sent another hand." Franz asked.

The purpose of Musil's coming here is for this hand: "Before explaining this hand, I still want to ask Mr. Albert's height."

"1 meters."

"Does he usually practice ordnance operations?"

"He's in the military and these drills are necessary."

"In this case, the hand is definitely not his." Musil said, "From the appearance, this right hand is smaller than that of ordinary men, with fair skin and no calluses on the fingertips and palms. Our preliminary judgment is that the right hand should be belonged to a woman."

Hands have more details than thighs, and gender can be basically determined just by nail skin and bone size.

"female?"

"Correct."

"Why did you send another woman's hand?"

"That's not clear."

Ludwig looked at the king beside him with some surprise: "Your Majesty, I really can't imagine the reason why the Prussians did this. Because every step of the army is to gain benefits. It is excusable to kill my son, but why did they Want to kill a woman? And specially send her hand to my house?"

Franz also had a headache. The war was imminent, and it was time to gather strength and do a good job of mobilizing before the station.

If it was true that Prussia was playing tricks, it would be fine, he could still raise the morale of the troops in the name of revenge.But now it seems that he is getting further and further away from the Prussians: "Are you sure?"

"That's all that can be seen for the time being." Musil said, "But some details still need to be explained by Dr. Carvey, and I can't tell."

"detail?"

Carvey has learned some knowledge of forensic science, but not much, and mainly used it to examine patients' injuries.I thought it would be useless in this era, but I didn't expect to encounter such a thing.

"Actually, it's not a detail. It's mainly to find the similarities and differences from the respective cut surfaces. The thigh meat is very clean, no blood can be seen in the meat, bones or blood vessels, as if it has been sucked clean. But the hand that was just delivered was stained with a lot of blood, and even blood stains and slight soft tissue swelling can be seen."

Ludwig couldn't understand these technical terms, so he just asked, "Just tell me the result."

"The owner of the right hand should still be alive, or be alive when the hand was cut off, because the skin and muscles still showed signs of curling up. That's why, I don't think the murderer was a surgeon."

Carvey explained: "Unfortunately, the owner of the leg meat must have died. If you want to do this, you can only drain the blood first and then cut it."

died
The owner of the leg meat is dead.
Ludwig didn't care about the woman's life at all, only his son was in his ears.When he heard this sentence, his brain went blank, his cane fell to the ground, and his body limp and fell into the arms of the old housekeeper: "Master! What's wrong with you, master!!!"

In fact, when there is no way to confirm that the deceased is Albert, it is not advisable to draw conclusions without authorization.But Albert had indeed been missing for nearly a week, and the piece of meat was sent to the manor again, and no one could help thinking about it.

Unfortunately, neither the last time nor this time, the postman was unable to describe the appearance of the client in detail.

Three days ago, he was still a strong man, but today he has become a strong old farm woman.However, at least two postmen have no motive for committing the crime, and they have no intersection with Albert and Ludwig.

The two sheriffs, Werther and Del Rio, directly reported the results of the investigation to Franz: "There are not many clues now, we will take the paper bag back to check the source, and the rest can only be obtained from Mr. The connection between the ladies started."

The old butler shook his head: "Master Albert was married a long time ago, and I never heard that he had other women outside."

"We will investigate this matter."

Franz was still very confident in the abilities of the two, so he just asked, "Can you be sure that the murderer used the same tool?"

"Now it seems that it should be the same knife and saw, but the legs and hands have been cryopreserved. It is difficult to judge by eyes alone, so our conclusion is not absolute."

"If they were cut by the same method and sent to the same manor, it is impossible to say that the two have no contact. You have to find out the truth of the whole thing as soon as possible." Franz sat by the bed, watching Ludwig who came here asked Karvey, "By the way, how is the old marshal now?"

"I just fainted, and now my heart rate and breathing are very stable, so it should be fine."

"He was not in good health, and it hurts to hear the news now." Franz sighed, and asked, "Have you found anything else?"

The two police chiefs really did their best. They just came to the manor today and saw the postman. They didn't even have time to ask the servants in the manor. These were the only clues they could get.What Musil said was the judgment of the doctors. After all, there was only one piece of flesh and one hand, and the information he could get was very limited.

On the contrary, Kawei has been thinking about it since just now. He was still hesitating before and had no chance to speak. Now he saw the king asking, and then said: "If I guess correctly, the murderer should have been to my pharmaceutical factory."

　The case is just a transition, related to the main line but not the point. Forensic medicine in the mid-19th century was very backward, and the viewpoint must be very backward. Just take a look

　　
　
(End of this chapter)