Chapter 112: Dead [2]
A Stethoscope. It was a tool doctors used to listen to a patient’s breathing or heart sounds. But to be honest, I was not very familiar with it. Why? No matter how carefully you listened, auscultation could not compare to a chest X-ray, and X-rays were expensive.
The heart… isn’t auscultation really difficult in the first place?
And with modern ultrasound technology, even cardiologists did not rely on auscultation alone. If anything seemed off, they went straight to an echocardiogram. In modern medicine, no one confirmed a diagnosis just by listening with a Stethoscope. So, I never had much affection for it. But now…
“If you’ve got a mouth, say something.”
“Okay. What, you didn’t have Stethoscopes in Joseon?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Look at these nineteenth-century doctors. Did it make any sense for several physicians to gather around just to figure out whether a patient was dead or alive? In our time, you would take an Electrocardiogram and be done. But here? They did not even have that option. So what kind of change could introducing a Stethoscope bring?
As I pored over the idea with mounting criticism, I started to think that maybe it was not just about checking if someone was dead.
Pneumonia… heart issues…
Diagnosing pneumonia in this era? Maybe a Stethoscope could make a difference. It would not hurt to have one. I was from the future, and while I specialized in surgery, that did not mean others in this time lacked talent. Among these experimental physicians, surely at least one was a genius.
“There might be one way.”
“Oh!”
“I knew it. There’s something special about you.”
Blundell looked purely delighted. Liston, on the other hand, was giving me a sly smile. Lately, he had been watching me more closely. I could tell.
Still… he hasn’t said anything. He’s probably just choosing to overlook it. For now.
Better that he ignored it. If others started raising suspicions, he might jump in to defend me. I did not want to start this conversation myself, so I paused to think it through carefully before speaking. Luckily, there was already some precedent, even from ancient times.
“If you look at some old Greek medical texts, there’s a passage saying doctors used hollow tree trunks to better hear a patient’s heartbeat.”
“Oh, I’ve read that. But how useful could that possibly be?”
These guys… This was why people called the nineteenth century barbaric. What an arrogant response. I glanced at Blundell and sighed internally.
Well, I guess with the steam engine, they think they’ve already conquered modernity.
To the people of the past, we must look so pathetic. You could not even build something this simple and just rowed around in boats. Still, there was something to be said for not throwing away all old knowledge. Think of revolutions, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, even the Cultural Revolution, though the last had a different goal. The point was, every era had its arrogant belief that everything old must be destroyed.
But ancient knowledge often hid useful truths. Human intelligence had not changed much over time.
“Take a look.”
“Whoa, what are you doing?! Why are you grabbing my face?”
“Just listen carefully. You’ll understand once you hear it.”
“…Well, okay.”
I pulled Blundell toward me and pressed his head to my chest. My frame, lean from poor nutrition and naturally slim, was well suited to auscultation.
“Can you hear anything?”
“I hear it…”
“You hear my heartbeat?”
“That line feels oddly romantic… Is that just me?”
“Now that you mention it, it does. I should use it later.”
“Ha.”
Blundell sighed but kept his ear pressed. Doctors were curious about other people’s heart sounds too. It was instinct.
“Okay, now try this.”
I moved his head away and picked up a sheet of paper. I rolled it into a tube and placed one end on my chest.
“Now, put your ear to the other end.”
“Oh, this isn’t difficult.”
“Can you hear it more clearly now?”
“…Yeah. Wow. It really is louder.”
“Right? You can hear the beating much better.”
“…Quiet.”
Blundell pulled back after a while, a slight blush on his face.
“Hm. You’re right. It’s definitely clearer.”
“Of course. But I’m a healthy adult. Of course you can hear mine clearly. In a real medical emergency, this might not be enough.”
A paper tube had its limits. It worked now because the lab was quiet. But in a noisy hospital? Forget it. I was no ENT specialist, but I had friends who were, and they always told me that sound was extremely sensitive and easily disrupted.
“Think about it. If we could really hear faint heartbeats, would people have ever been buried alive?”
“Now that you say it… yeah, that makes sense.”
“Exactly.”
Blundell and Liston nodded, watching me with renewed interest. They were still riding the high of what I had just shown them, and I had to admit, it was kind of fun. Still, I knew I had to go further.
“Let’s talk about ears.”
“Ears?”
“Suddenly?”
Everyone knew what ears looked like. But how many actually understood why they were shaped that way?
“Look at the ear flap. Do you think God made it like that for no reason?”
When in doubt, use the God card. Darwin had not thrown this era into crisis yet, so nobody dared challenge creationism. Even now, in the nineteenth century, invoking divine design was like armor.
“Hmm…”
“He wouldn’t have made it for no reason.”
“Exactly!”
I waved my arms like some revival preacher. Honestly, I hesitated about spreading knowledge too far ahead of its time. But thankfully, I was met with nothing but wide-eyed curiosity.
“This shape helps collect sound.”
“Collect sound?”
“Sound is just like air, right?”
Explaining vibration theory to them would be too much. The whole process, how sound vibrations were funneled through the auricle, ear canal, ossicles, and finally converted into electrical signals by the cochlea, was just too advanced. Heck, I barely understood it myself. Props to ENT doctors, seriously.
“Just think of it as air. And imagine it being gathered.”
“…Hmm.”
“So this shape isn’t just for looks?”
“Right.”
“And?”
Imitation was the mother of invention. I had not even realized it, but the shape of the ear resembled a Stethoscope. Which came first? The Stethoscope or the ear? Obviously, the ear. So, it was safe to say the Stethoscope was modeled after it.
“If you cup your hands around your ears like this, you’ll hear things more clearly. It gathers sound.”
“Oh, you’re right.”
“I’ve never thought of that. But it makes sense.”
Even the usually silent students were nodding along. I kept going.
“So let’s keep following God’s design.”
Once again, the revival-meeting approach was the safest bet.
“Now, the ear canal. Why do you think it exists?”
“…Dunno. But it must be for something.”
“Ever been in a cave?”
“Nope.”
“When would we ever go to a cave?”
Ah, I slipped. Tourism was not a thing here. Steam engines existed, but travel was still a massive undertaking. The upper class might tour Europe or Asia, but nobody in our little group was in that league. Not even Colin or Alfred.
“I meant that hallway over there, the one leading to the urinary stone surgery room.”
“Oh, that place does feel like a cave.”
“Didn’t you notice the echo when you walked through it?”
“…Now that you mention it…”
It was like a tunnel. The sound bounced off the walls and got amplified. The same thing happened in the ear canal. It increased the volume of sound roughly threefold. I could not explain the exact numbers to them, so I skipped that part.
“The ear works the same way. Sound travels through the canal, gets amplified, and that’s what Professor Blundell heard earlier.”
“…How do you know all this?”
“It’s the grace of God.”
“No, seriously. Why does God only give you this grace?”
Good question. Why was I reincarnated? Why me?
I did not know. Maybe history was changing bit by bit, person by person.
“Dawn prayer.”
“What…”
“Anyway, you’d know this if you dissected an ear. There’s an eardrum at the end.”
“There is.”
It was concave, like a tiny drum.
“And that also gathers sound.”
“…Now that you say it…”
“Right? So wouldn’t it make sense to build something shaped like the ear? A concave metal disc, a tube in the back, and your ear at the other end. Wouldn’t it amplify sound?”
“Oh!”
“Whoa!”
Footnotes
Translator’s Notes
Auscultation — Listening to internal body sounds, usually heart, lung, or bowel sounds, for medical assessment.
Chest X-ray — Imaging method using X-rays to view the chest, lungs, heart outline, and surrounding structures.
Echocardiogram — Ultrasound examination of the heart, used to assess heart structure and function.
Darwin — Charles Darwin, British naturalist later known for the theory of evolution by natural selection. His major work, On the Origin of Species, was published in 1859.
French Revolution — Major political and social revolution in France beginning in 1789.
Russian Revolution — Revolution in Russia in 1917 that led to the fall of the Russian Empire and the rise of Soviet rule.
Cultural Revolution — Political and social movement in China from 1966 to 1976.
Auricle — External visible part of the ear that helps collect sound.
Ossicles — Tiny bones in the middle ear that transmit sound vibrations.
Cochlea — Spiral-shaped inner-ear organ involved in converting sound vibrations into nerve signals.