Nineteenth Century Medical Guide

Chapter 428. Win-win
"If a person has ascariasis, he will vomit the ascariasis. The ascariasis goes up into the diaphragm, causing restlessness, which will stop after a while. If a person vomits after eating and becomes restless again, it is because the ascariasis smells the food and comes out. The person will often vomit the ascariasis." - Zhang Zhongjing, "Treatise on Febrile Diseases"

"Ascaris becomes calm when it smells sour, becomes submerged when it smells spicy, and dies when it smells bitter." - Zhang Lu, Treatise on Cold Damage

Landres brought a not-too-old medical book, which was related to Treatise on Febrile Diseases, but not as famous as Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Synopsis of the Golden Chamber. However, the dark yellow pages in front of him and the Chinese characters on them still evoked Kavi's memories.

"What is the theory of cold and typhoid fever? I don't even know this word."

Kawi knew very little about Chinese medicine and rarely read Chinese medicine books. He certainly didn't know the words that were rarely seen in modern times. But Landreth was surprised that he could recognize three words in an instant: "You know a lot."

"I've heard my father talk about it before."

"Father?"

"Yes, he has passed away."

Landreth was about to ask where his father worked, but was immediately choked by Kavi's answer. On second thought, now was not the time to ask such a question. It was more important to find a treatment for roundworm intestinal obstruction: "This word is pronounced 'zuan'. The Shanghan Zuanlun was compiled by a Chinese medicine scholar 200 years ago after quoting a large number of Chinese medicine books."

"I see. You are worthy of being a professor of Chinese studies. I am grateful for your advice." Kavi made a simple fist salute. "Which page is the one about dealing with roundworms that you just mentioned?"

Landreth did not feel happy after receiving the compliments from Kawi. Instead, he had an indescribable feeling, as if he was hitting cotton: "Don't be hypocritical. If you can understand these words, I will give you the professorship immediately!"

"What's the point of just knowing Chinese characters?"

"Chinese characters are independent individuals. Isn't it basic to know and understand them?"

"Some words are hard to explain clearly, just understand the general meaning."

"You are just making excuses for your illiteracy."

Kavi smiled: "What excuse can I make? Oh, what if I don't know those words? What should I do if I don't know you?"

Landreth's hand, which was flipping the pages of the book, stopped in mid-air. He suddenly realized that Kawi would not suffer any substantial loss whether he won or lost, and immediately emphasized, "I don't want anything else, and I don't lack anything. Just 'you lose' is enough."

Kavi didn't know why this nearly 40-year-old doctor was so persistent. He didn't care what others wanted. But since it was a gamble, he definitely wanted something useful for himself. Being a visiting professor tied to the University of Paris was definitely not what he wanted, at least not now. What he wanted must be related to surgery:
"How about this, you better not give up your seat to me. I want to order something else."

"what?"

"I want the right to use the operating theater at the Main Palace Hospital." Kavi looked back at Shilina, who had returned to her previous indifferent expression. "When she gives birth, lend me the operating theater. I'll leave after the operation is done."

Landreth didn't want to give it: "Why not try a natural birth?"

"Normal delivery? Giving birth for more than ten hours? Do you think her physical condition can handle it?" Kavi wanted to say that the operation was risky, but after thinking it over, he decided not to say it. "You know about cesarean section. It can be done in an hour. It won't affect your surgery schedule."

"It doesn't matter. I will definitely attend anyway. It's also good to put it in the main palace hospital."

Landreth compared the pages several times and finally found the one he wanted. "That should be the sentence. '□ Ascaris □ acid then □ see □ then □□ bitter then go down.'"

They were all traditional Chinese characters, and they were printed in a formal style. To Kawi, it was as simple as an elementary school textbook. Kawi had to explain what was written on it and consider the other person's feelings, so his answer was a little stiff: "I don't know the first character, but the third one is 闻, I think it means 听."

"Can you hear sounds by smelling roundworms?" Landreth found it strange when he saw him pointing at his ear.

Kavi ignored him and continued, "The sixth one is Ding, which means to stop."

Landreth: ???
"Yes, that's the state you are in now!" Kavi said with a smile.

"Ah?" Landreth frowned and repeated, "The roundworm stopped when it heard acid? Can acid play a symphony? And what kind of acid is it? Sulfuric acid? Can you hear sulfuric acid? Or carbonic acid? This is too weird!!!"

"When this book was written, sulfuric acid and carbonic acid had not yet been officially named," Kavi guided the topic. "I think it should not be 'listening', but some other action. 'Acid' is not necessarily something like sulfuric acid and carbonic acid. Maybe this acid is not a noun but an adjective, meaning it tastes sour?"

"Oh, that makes sense." Landreth immediately took out his notebook and wrote down this sentence. "Sour taste, that's vinegar, can we use vinegar? Will vinegar make it quiet? Maybe that's the explanation. The following '见则.' should be the same sentence structure as before, which can be understood as what happens when you see something."

"You can draw inferences from one example. That's great." Kavi encouraged, "So what's behind this 'see'?"

There are thousands of Chinese characters, so it's normal for Landreth to not recognize some of them. However, he has studied the habit of recording speech and is familiar with it. After all, he is a professor who has studied Chinese for a long time. "You can look at the back. There is a 'bitter' at the back, so the middle should also be a taste. Sweet? Spicy? Salty?"

The "spicy" in traditional Chinese medicine definitely does not mean "spicy", and Kavi doesn't know how to explain "spicy" in French.

He didn't like the mysterious things in Chinese medicine, but he didn't deny the feasibility of some Chinese medicine theories, nor did he deny the practicality of Chinese medicine, because he had used it on patients before when conditions were not right. Maybe what was written in the book was indeed useful, but for the weak Shilina, there was no chance to try again and again, and once she failed, it would be a double loss.

After thinking for a long time, Kavi came up with a solution that was more in line with modern medicine: "Since the book only describes three situations, it would be better to do a roundworm provocation experiment instead of guessing here."

Landreth looked at the roundworms in the glass dish and said, "There's not enough sample."

"Just wait until she spits out a few more."

"What about these words?"

"Didn't I say before that just knowing the general idea is enough?" Kawi explained, "And it was after seeing this sentence that I came up with my current idea. I have achieved my goal."

The Chinese character contest that Landreth had envisioned ended inexplicably, but the result was still good for him. Kavi knew quite a lot of words, but not all of them, which was about the same as himself, so he saved face; he made a promise to the surgical theater and participated in the operation naturally.

As Kawi said, the goal has been achieved, a win-win situation.

"We need to find someone to prepare some things for the experiment." Kavi wrote in his notebook, "Brine, vinegar, alcohol, baking soda, paraffin oil, ginger juice, various diluted sauces, honey, chili juice." Landreth always felt that Kavi's experiment would fail: "Are you going to make a French meal? Do you want to spread it with butter and fry it in a frying pan?"

"Don't interrupt me, help me think of a few more useful ones!"

"What else can we do? Can we add some vegetables to the plate?"

"Oh, right, vegetables! You're so smart!" Kavi gave enough emotional value, and then continued, "Use lettuce, celery, and almonds, all of which can be made into juice. Also find some belladonna for spasms. Diluted methylene blue and hydrogen peroxide can also be used!"

Soon, a list of reagents mixed with kitchen ingredients and various disinfectants was successfully delivered to an intern.

Some of them were already in the lab, but the dosage and concentration needed to be adjusted to avoid killing the precious living insects. The rest had to be found in the restaurant kitchens on the street as soon as possible, just like Kawi had found clean vegetable oil for disinfection.

Landreth was still looking at the Chinese medicine book in his hand. He felt that Kavi's experiment was not very reliable. "How are you going to use those things? Orally or directly by enema?"

Kavi came back to Shilina, touched her belly, and felt a barely noticeable lump under her skin. When he carefully confirmed the location, the lump moved back and forth with the pressure: "It should be in the small intestine, but I'm not sure which part it is. You can try both methods."

"Do you really think you can get the worms out with something you just picked up?"

Kavi was a little confused: "Huh? Didn't you say you wanted to read the records in Chinese medicine books? It wasn't my suggestion."

"But you didn't really follow what the book said." Landreth has an inexplicable admiration for Chinese medicine and Sinology. "We can't even recognize all the characters."

"What's the point of knowing everything?" Kavi rubbed the lump slowly with his warm palms, applying even force and being very patient. "Do you think we can get all the Chinese medicines mentioned in the book? Without Chinese medicine, most of Chinese medicine would be useless. We might as well be flexible according to the current conditions."

As she spoke, Shilina's belly began to respond to the hot compress and rubbing.

"Bring a bucket!"

"Get some rags, warm water, and tweezers ready! And an empty glass dish!"

Ugh~ Ugh ugh ugh~~~
"Here it comes, another one came out, no, two! A great harvest!!!"

That night, Shilina vomited six times, and four live worms were found. The next morning, she vomited three more times, and one live worm was found. Shilina looked weaker than the day before, and it was obvious that she was suffering from abdominal pain. Kavi did not wait any longer and conducted experiments on the roundworms directly.

The first group of 5 reagents: sodium bicarbonate, fruit vinegar, alcohol, paraffin oil, ginger juice + honey.

The result is that the worms wriggle slightly in sodium bicarbonate, but there are no other intense reactions, which should be the most suitable control reagent. The worms wriggle less in fruit vinegar, which corresponds to the saying that "roundworms become stable when they smell acid". In 50% alcohol and paraffin oil, the worms wriggle vigorously until they gradually lose their vitality after 30 minutes. In ginger honey, the worms wriggle vigorously at first, but after 2 minutes, the wriggle weakens until they completely lose their vitality.

At the end of the first set of experiments, the surviving roundworms were placed in a sodium bicarbonate solution to restore them to their original state, and the second set of experiments began.

The second group still consists of 5 reagents: chili juice, vegetable juice, almond soup, methylene blue and hydrogen peroxide.

I don't know if the chili in the French kitchen was not spicy enough or the roundworms had no reaction to chili, but the first worm thrown into the chili juice did not react and continued to wriggle. The second worm was thrown into the vegetable juice mixed with celery and lettuce, and the worm immediately lost its vitality, but returned to normal after being put back into the sodium bicarbonate solution.

The remaining almond juice and hydrogen peroxide were the same as ginger honey, which excited the roundworms for 2-5 minutes and then completely lost their vitality. Methylene blue did not even have any effect on the worms and was finally eliminated.

The final list of available reagents was paraffin oil, ginger honey, almond juice and hydrogen peroxide.

"Move first and then stop, let them wriggle violently to loosen the roundworm mass so that it can no longer move." Landreth nodded. "It's a good idea, but what if the intestinal mucosa is damaged when the roundworms are stimulated?"

Kavi sighed and seemed very confident: "Then it all depends on luck!"

The four reagents plus belladonna were divided into two groups. One group was orally administered with ginger honey (15g ginger juice + 30ml honey) + almond water (50ml) + vegetable oil (50ml) stirred, and the other group was administered with hydrogen peroxide + belladonna for anal drip.

"No enema?"

"I decided not to have an enema."

Kavi was still worried about Shilina's belly: "Her body temperature is getting higher and higher. If the enema directly affects the uterus and causes contractions and labor now, then she and I will have to face an extremely high body temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, increasingly violent contractions, and repeated stimulation from roundworms in the next 39.5 hours. I don't dare to bet."

"He's your patient anyway. I'll listen to you." Landreth found that he had no reason to question Kavi any further. "What's the matter?"

"Find a tube, use the infusion bottle from the hospital, and the infusion tube I brought with me, and compress it to 40 drops per minute."

It seemed that everything was going as planned, but the more Kawi thought everything was going well, the easier it was for the world to cause him trouble. Kawi and Landreth were still thinking about how to deal with pneumonia, while Shilina felt more severe abdominal pain due to the stimulation of oral administration and anal drip.

This abdominal pain is weaker than the contractions in the final stage of labor and is not enough to destroy an adult's will to fight the disease.

But obviously Shilina has no willpower because she is a mental patient.

While she was shouting "bad guys" to everyone present with her hoarse voice full of phlegm, she also pulled out the tube that was inserted into her colon. Although the mixed juice she had just swallowed still remained in her stomach, it could not withstand her constant nausea and vomiting.

Kavi had no medication to deal with mental illness, so she had to be restrained to prevent her from engaging in extreme behavior such as choking and slapping her stomach.

Fortunately, the interns were very capable. They subdued the crazy woman's crazy scratching and tied her up to the only bed in the laboratory. However, at this moment, when everyone was busy tying her hands and feet, Shilina's stomach twitched violently.

The contractions are coming.

You can question TCM, I also question TCM, but you cannot question the enthusiasm of foreign countries for TCM research at that time. At that time, it was stuck at the node of modern medical development, and the treatment ability was very scarce. Many people thought that TCM was a good direction, but the complicated text was daunting.