Chapter 194: Hygiene Obsession [3]
“Well, is everyone gathered?”
The next day, Liston summoned me and several of the elite members of London University to the lecture hall. While it was technically a classroom, it rarely served as one. As usual, it had been repurposed. Today, it was for experimentation rather than teaching. The student desks and podium had been arranged in a way that suggested something more serious than a lecture was about to take place.
“What about the microscope?”
“Here you go.”
I handed over Sir Damien’s microscope. It was a costly piece of equipment, so I had been careful with it, though, to be honest, I had already brought it with me to Paris without asking. Fortunately, it was not like the bulky microscopes I was used to. This one was more compact and easier to carry around discreetly.
“Good. Now, what about the miasma?”
“Right here. Whew… though this…”
Blundell answered, one hand pinching his nose with a white handkerchief while the other held a small bottle of water from the Thames.
Just looking at it made my stomach churn.
Worse than Paris… definitely worse.
Maybe it was due to the sheer number of people. Paris had around six hundred thousand citizens. London was already pushing over two million in the early nineteenth century. Infrastructure had not kept pace with this explosive growth, and it showed in the state of the river. The water was murky, thick with visible clumps of who-knew-what. The British Empire might be vast, but it could not even flush its own waste properly.
“Well then, shall we take a look?”
“Do we really have to? That’s just a bottle of disease.”
“Ah! My friend, haven’t we learned anything from our water-drinking experiments? Proper science requires comparison, before and after. I even brought a painter today!”
“A painter…?”
“Well, I guess we have no choice then.”
Only now did I notice the unfamiliar face standing quietly off to the side. Sure enough, he had a satchel of paints and pencils. I did not know if he was being paid fairly for this. He looked half-frozen with fear.
“Ugh.”
Blundell gagged as he removed the handkerchief and poured a little Thames water onto a clean white plate for contrast. For a second, I swore the white started to turn black.
“Let’s see…”
Each of us took turns examining the water under the microscope. It was teeming with microorganisms I could not begin to name. The fact that anything could survive in that water was horrifying, and impressive.
“See that?”
“Yes.”
“You have to look carefully. We need someone to draw this.”
“Got it.”
The painter peered into the microscope last, trembling slightly. Whether or not he was a true artist, he had the supplies and, with Liston’s help, seemed to grasp the general shape of what he was seeing.
“What the hell is this…? What am I even looking at?”
“That! That is miasma in its purest form, disease itself!”
“Well, that’s one way to put it.”
“You don’t have to understand it. Just draw it. That’s your job.”
“I can draw, I suppose.”
“Good. Then draw it well. I’ve already taken a look.”
“Yes, yes, understood…”
It sounded like there was some personal history between them, but I did not ask. No one else did either. Everyone seemed equally uninterested in the backstory, and the experiment resumed without further distraction.
“Alright, everyone. Time to take out the disinfectants you prepared!”
“Heh.”
Blundell confidently produced a container from under his coat.
“Ugh!”
The moment he opened it, a terrible smell flooded the room. Everyone instinctively stepped back, including Liston, which made me feel slightly better about my own reaction. Blundell seemed genuinely offended by our responses.
“What? But you made this!”
“Form… form—solution.”
I nearly blurted out “formaldehyde.” A known carcinogen. It was shocking to be confronted with it so suddenly, even knowing what it was.
“Do you know how toxic this is? Ha. Actually, I brought one of the rats we caught yesterday.”
“A rat?”
“Yes. A mouse.”
“…Why?”
What came next even left Liston momentarily speechless. With everyone staring, Blundell reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a dead rat, clearly preserved in formaldehyde.
“I wanted to test it. See this?”
“He died? That’s… that’s a terrible way to go.”
“Still, rats are pests. A major source of miasma.”
I opened my mouth to correct him. Technically, that was not true. But before I could, he continued.
“I dropped him into the solution. He died in under a minute. You know rats are strong swimmers, right? He didn’t drown. He just… went. So, if this can kill a rat that fast, could miasma survive it?”
“I doubt it could,” I said. “Alright, pour some on the plate.”
“Guess that puts me in first place.”
The fact that rats and humans were both mammals did not seem to occur to him. Or if it did, he did not care. I did not bother correcting it. What good would it do?
The others probably think the same way…
Repeating myself was not worth the energy. I just stepped back and let the demonstration continue.
“Now, for my contribution.”
Next came Liston. He brought out hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, and a solution of carbolic acid, also known as phenol.
The moment he opened them, an acrid, sour odor filled the room. I covered my nose instinctively. Formaldehyde might be a carcinogen, but hydrochloric and sulfuric acid were lethal on contact if misused.
“Hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid. Strong stuff.”
“It has to be. These can kill people outright.”
“So how are you going to use them?”
“Diluted, of course. Maybe a fifty-fifty solution?”
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s see how it works.”
Compared to those two, phenol almost seemed tame. Still, we now had three dishes, each holding a different solution. The hissing sounds from the plates were not reassuring. Liston seemed a bit startled himself. If the plates were glazed well, they might hold. Otherwise, they would melt. Glass bottles were probably the only safe containers to use.
Or a plastic tub from Breaking Bad, if we had one.
“I brought sulfur,” Alfred said.
“And I brought mercury,” Joseph added.
“Solid disinfectants! Fascinating.”
“Indeed!”
Liston and Blundell praised them as if they had just discovered penicillin. Professors in the twenty-first century rarely praised students like this. Maybe this was their way of nurturing scientific creativity. No idea was too small.
“Mercury. That’s classic,” said Liston.
“It’s probably easier to use than sulfur.”
“And it doesn’t smell.”
“Isn’t mercury tasteless too?”
“Haha! That’s true!”
Everyone was in high spirits. What surprised me most was that Liston knew what mercury tasted like.
You’re going to test Thames water, but you don’t hesitate with mercury… I guess this really is the spirit of the times.
“I-I didn’t prepare anything,” Colin mumbled. “I meant to bring mercury, but Joseph beat me to it…”
Everyone turned to Colin, who looked genuinely ashamed, waving his hands in apology. I did not blame him. This was not some test he had to pass. Still, it made me feel a little lazy for having brought mine in advance.
“Hey, what is that?”
“What’s that strange-looking stuff?”
No one had batted an eye at dead rats or toxic acids, but what I pulled out made everyone recoil. I did not blame them. I had been shocked too when I first saw it. It had been gifted to us in France by Dr. Pierre’s friend, Lugol, as thanks for our work during the cholera outbreak.
“It’s iodine solution.”
“Iodine…?”
“Looks dangerous, being that dark brown.”
“Almost like blood…”
“It’s the kind of medicine people will love.”
Yes, iodine. The original antiseptic red pill. Seeing it this early in history was kind of awe-inspiring. But in this room full of caustic chemicals, iodine seemed almost quaint.
Still, it doesn’t look strong enough…
This era loved strength. Potency. Carbolic acid had been the king of disinfectants for a reason. Compared to that, iodine was almost delicate.
But I knew better.
Iodine has powerful oxidizing ability. It destroys proteins by breaking amino acid bonds: sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen. It leaves nothing alive.
“I’ll pour mine in now.”
“Alright. Let’s have a look.”
As I poured the iodine into the dish, a soft hiss rose. Meanwhile, the hydrochloric and sulfuric acids had already started melting the plates, and the desk beneath them.
“Ah, what do we do about that?!”
Only now did Liston notice. He panicked. Blundell, reaching out to help, accidentally touched the acid and burned himself. Thankfully, he had only grazed it, and he was wearing gloves.
“Is this even usable on people…?” I asked, eyeing the melted desk and Blundell blowing on his fingers.
They both shook their heads. It looked pitiful, but I did not stop.
“Wouldn’t the same thing happen to people…?”
I nodded toward the rat that had been lying out earlier. The others followed my gaze.
Joseph murmured, “Yeah, probably…”
Alfred nodded silently.
I wanted to test the rest too, but for now, I had nothing else prepared, especially not for sulfur, mercury, or phenol.
Then, suddenly—
“Hey! That’s going to catch fire!”
Someone had dropped the sulfur.
We were now down to mercury, phenol, and iodine.