Nineteenth Century Medical Guide

Chapter 24 24. The Panacea

"Loma" can be regarded as an old well-known pharmacy in Vienna. Its establishment dates back to the middle of the last century. It has been passed down to the third generation in the hands of the owner Quedlin Loma. It is a truly century-old brand.

Drugstores in the 17th or 18th century had no customer aisles, and people simply handed in a doctor's prescription through the sales window to get their medicines.Because customers could not enter the house, Old Loma was willing to spend a lot of money on home decoration, and used the money he earned to buy a lot of fashionable and expensive furnishings【1】.

But times are different now, and customers want to be able to visually see the medicines they are taking.

So the current owner, Quedlin, expanded the store, separated the herbal medicine processing storage room from the laboratory [2], and replaced the medicine sorting table originally placed in the store with a long and narrow counter, trying to give the patients a spacious stay area. .

"It was built on March 1751, 3, and it's engraved on the sign." Quedlin pointed to the door and asked Carvey who was beside him, "Why do you ask when the store was founded? Aren't you here to buy medicine?"

Carvey nodded quickly: "Ah, yes, I'm here to buy medicine."

The family motto handed down by three generations of the Loma family: To open a business, you must be responsive, and even if you are terminally ill, you should try your best to meet the basic needs of customers.For example, the color of the potion, the raw materials used, the taste, etc., the purpose is to treat the disease by following the fate, and the key is caring.

But when the words came into his hands, it seemed that he was about to make an exception.

"If you don't buy medicine, please leave, I still have business here."

"Buy, I will definitely buy it." Kavi walked to the counter, took out a 20-kroner note from his pocket, and said with a smile, "Just give me a bottle of medicine for headache and fever, my mother recently I have a terrible fever."

"Headache and fever."

Quedlin put down the book in his hand, got up and took out a distinctive white bowl from the medicine cabinet beside him, and put it in front of Carvey: "According to the theory of four fluids [3], fever is closely related to the increase of blood. .I think you can try this one, just got it from a supplier in Hungary."

Too much blood?
Kavey frowned, as if he had noticed something.As Quedlin opened the porous lid on the white bowl, black wriggling worms revealed the answer on the spot: a can of healthy and thirsty leeches【4】.

"Is this bloodletting?"

"Yes, bloodletting [5]."

Quedlin reached into the jar like hugging a beloved pet, and easily picked up a wet leech from the water.He kept changing the position of his hands to prevent them from biting his skin: "These are Hungarian leeches [6] with pure bloodlines. They are of medium size and are just right for use on patients."

Carvey didn't feel disgusted, but he really couldn't like it: "Is there any other way?"

"Others?" Quedlin threw the leech into the jar and asked, "Are there any other symptoms besides headache and fever?"

"Emmm, cough." Carvey's eyes were full of those dark little guys, and he didn't listen carefully to what he said, so he said casually, "The cough is quite bad."

"That seems to be a problem with the lungs. I suggest you have better bloodletting."

Quedlin tapped the jar with his knuckles, and his tone was very confident. In addition to his age of more than 50, he seemed to be an old director with decades of clinical experience: "Once every three days, a total of 3 Hz for 1 Leh, 1 times a course of treatment. If it’s too expensive, you can also choose to use a scarifier【5】and a suction can.”

After speaking, he skillfully took out these two things from the cupboard.

Carvey has just traveled through time, and the surgical thinking has basically come over, but the internal medicine is still in modern times and has not moved much.He never imagined that bloodletting is necessary for headaches and brain fever, so everything can be bloodletted: "It's better to use medicine, my mother doesn't like this kind of thing very much."

Quedlin sighed, "This is the first time I've seen someone who doesn't like bloodletting."

"Hehe, my mother is a weird person." Carvey had no choice but to respond out loud.

"Cough, headache..., and fever, so many symptoms, let me think about it"

Quedlin glanced at the 20-krone banknote in Kavey's hand. Although it didn't match the other party's attire, the money couldn't be faked.He turned his back, rummaged through the cabinet, took out a golden round pot, and poured out a coffee-colored pill from it: "Do you want to try this?"

"What kind of medicine is this?"

"The treasure of my family's town store - panacea."

Quedlin turned over the jug, revealing a self-made label.The product name is "Wonderful Medicine" [8], and below it is a crappy advertisement line: Hartmann Hospital's famous physician [Posa Crozier] recommends it wholeheartedly, absolutely cures all diseases, and fake one penalty five ten.

"This"

Panacea is a deceitful thing in the face of modern thinking, but it is the 19th century, and you have to do as the Romans do, even if it is pretending: "How much?"

When it came to money, Quedlin finally showed a smile on his face: "A bottle costs 20 crowns."

Carvey glanced at the banknote in his hand and continued to ask, "How many grains are there?"

"50 pills."

40 Heller a pill is indeed expensive enough and worthy of the title of panacea.As for the effect, Carvey really dare not make a conclusion, and there is no specific drug experiment to help him make a conclusion: "I only have 20 crowns left in my body, does the medicine really work?"

"Yes, absolutely!" The boss said excitedly, pointing at the label, "If you see it, you will be fined fifty if you fake it!"

Looking at the exaggerated odds, Carvey sensitively sensed a hint of deceit: "How can it be considered fake?"

"It's fake if your body doesn't react after eating it."

This sounds reasonable at first glance, but in Kavey's eyes, the pit is even bigger, and the hand holding the 20 kroner is getting tighter and tighter: "What kind of reaction do you usually have when you eat it?"

Quedlin had never seen such a entangled family member of a patient. He wanted to reject the deal, but he looked at the brand-new and dazzling 20 crowns, and his body was very honest.

Of course, when the words are explained in the mouth, the tone will definitely appear impatient: "Generally there will be some mild diarrhea, and people will become very energetic. The cough can be relieved on the same day. If you have a high fever, it will disappear in one day at the earliest, and it will disappear in three to five days at the slowest." will retreat."

"What if the fever doesn't subside?"

"If the fever doesn't subside, then it's terminally ill."

Carvey:?
Quedlin's self-confidence seems to be able to withstand repeated questioning: "You have to know that all the patients who drank the potion recovered in a short time. Except for those patients who were incurable, they all died, so this This kind of potion will only fail in the face of terminal illness."

Carvey:? ? ?
The sophistry has formed a concealed and perfect closed loop under the boss's clever tongue, plus there is a famous doctor's platform on the drug label, it's hard to believe it or not.

"This medicine is in limited supply, can you buy it?"

While Carvey was still hesitating, the door of the pharmacy was gently pushed open, and a man walked in with the crisp ringing of the bell: "Boss, I'm here again."

"It's Mr. Alphonse." Quedlin greeted the regular customer with a smile, "Today's leech is ready for you, please sit down, I will bleed you later."

"After a while?" Alphonse was a little anxious, "I have to go back to the restaurant to do something later, or help me first."

"It was Mr. Alphonse."

Only then did he follow the direction of the voice to see the young man in front of the counter, and suddenly he felt mixed feelings, with an inexplicable feeling: "The poor boy two days ago? Why did you come here?"

"My mother is not feeling well, so I came to buy some medicine." Carvey didn't explain much, just wanted to ask about the panacea, "Do you know this medicine, sir?"

"The panacea? Of course I know that." Alphonse stepped forward, picked up a pill, put it in front of his nose and sniffed it, "I heard that many good materials were used, but they are too refined and expensive. It's better to let some blood out."

Carvey couldn't understand it again: "Mr. Alphonse, you are joking again, 40 hellers should not be too expensive for you."

"40?" Alphonse was a little puzzled, "I was here last time and said 4 crowns a grain, how did it become 40 Helle?"

The price difference was 10 times, and the two looked at Quedlin in unison.The shrewd boss didn't feel too embarrassed, and took out another medicine pot of the same style from the cabinet beside him.It still says Theriac, and the advertisement is similar, except
"This medicine is different."

"Is it still purified?"

Quedlin didn't explain much, and wanted to use facts to prove his point of view.

He opened the medicine pot and took out a pill that shone with silver luster, quite proudly: "This Theriac is specially added with Mediterranean coral powder, musk and snake bone powder, and it is coated with sugar and exquisitely packaged in silver paper. Here, it is still a special offering for the royal nobles, so the price must be more expensive."【9】

Carvey was stunned when he heard that, completely unaware of the effect of adding these things to the medicine.

But Alphonse at the side suddenly realized that it made sense: "So, 200 kroner for a pot?"

"Correct."

Alphonse picked up another pill, and was very fond of the shiny silver paper: "The packaging is good. If bloodletting still can't solve my problem, I can try it."

Carvey was not willing to spend the money, and the 20 kroner finally went back to his own pocket intact.After all, this is Ignatz's money, and it's not appropriate to use it without a good reason.

Neither the 0 harvest from the pharmacy nor Quedlin's strange gaze hit him, and now Kavi is squatting beside Alphonse, carefully observing how those little guys work: "How do you feel?"

"No feeling, no pain."

Alphonse was sitting on the treatment chair in the pharmacy, looking up at the ceiling, enjoying the feeling of being kissed and sucked by them constantly: "The chair here is good, just for me to relax. The hare, the royal hare cuisine [10] is too laborious."

"Rabbit? The French eat rabbit too?"

"Of course, hare cuisine is quite old."

When it comes to rabbits, the first thing Carvey thinks of is rabbit heads. No matter how cruel France is, it is not as cruel as the taste of Sichuan people: "Even you can't cook with rabbit heads, right?"

"Head? How do you eat the rabbit's head?" Alphonse was a little curious. "The bones are too troublesome and there is little meat. It's just a layer of skin when you gnaw on it."

Carvey is not a chef, he can think that rabbit heads are not just for eating: "Since you have been making wild rabbit dishes, you should still have a lot of rabbit heads?"

"Yes, several of them are thrown away every day."

"I think it's better not to throw it away, just leave it to me."

(End of this chapter)