Chapter 22: It’s the Doctor [1]
Chapter 22: It’s the Doctor [1]
Robert Liston.
The best surgeon in London.
It seemed he had not reached that position for nothing. He was quite flexible in his thinking. Then again, had it not been said that Doctor’s trademark, the Liston knife, was something he had personally designed and made? That meant he had creativity.
“Certainly, it would be a new…… a new attempt. Isn’t it rather remarkable to have thought of something like this, Blundell?”
On top of that, he was a man capable of violence. I had never seen him hit anyone, but just look at that face, those fists. Of course he would hit people, would he not?
“Uh…… well, if that is what you think, then I suppose it is remarkable.”
It seemed Blundell thought the same, since he did not even dare meet his eyes.
Honestly, if anyone could voice a different opinion there, I would have been willing to respect him. That would not have been a matter of courage, but of conviction. Even if it was the wrong conviction, if someone believed that strongly, then well…….
“Then shall we try it? But it would be difficult to apply it to every ward. First, we would have to decide how exactly the hands should be washed.”
With a single sentence, Doctor Liston subdued Blundell and then turned to me. A pressure I had not felt when watching from the side now came crashing down on me. If not for the experience from my previous life, would I not already have dropped to my knees by now? No, in truth, even now my knees were trembling enough to make me uneasy.
“Yes, yes.”
So I bowed my head first, like a slave. While keeping my head lowered, I glanced at what Joseph and Alfred were doing, and the two of them were even worse. They were heaving like men who had forgotten how to breathe. At that rate, you idiots were going to hyperventilate.
“For now, I think it would be best to operate just one ward as a trial.”
Anyway, watching those fools act like idiots made me think I could not possibly behave like that too, so I managed to pour out the words I had prepared earlier.
“Oh?”
Liston lifted his chin and looked at me, perhaps because he found me admirable. I could not tell whether he admired the substance of what I said, or merely the fact that I had answered him. Still, it was a good sign. Whatever it was, at least the reaction was not bad.
“I think simply washing hands with boiled water alone may be insufficient.”
“Why is that?”
“To be honest…… I do not mean to say something completely opposed to the miasma theory.”
My mouth itched. I wanted to shout, Miasma, you son of a bitch. I did not know whether it had been named after someone or just made up on the spot, but people in the old days did love slapping their names on things.
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I came to think that miasma might cling not only to the air, but also to our bodies.”
“That could be so.”
“If it is really strong enough to kill people, would washing with water alone be enough?”
“Hm…… that is a reasonable thought as well. Then what do you intend to wash with?”
Doctor Liston’s questions had a very sharp edge to them. I had thought about this a lot myself. The first thing that came to mind was alcohol, but the cost was far too high. Liquor itself was not cheap, so distilling it every time it was needed was a bit…….
“I have heard there is a disinfectant called chloride of lime.”
“That would be extremely harsh.”
Yes, it was harsh.
Damn it…….
Without realizing it, I looked down at my own hands. I had tried washing them with it once yesterday, and it had hurt. Good grief, it hurt just to wash my hands? But there was no helping it. Water alone would not be enough.
“I tried it myself, and it was bearable.”
“Really? Hm…… but would they follow it?”
Doctor Liston stroked his chin. Although he had clearly shaved quite thoroughly, I did not know whether it was because he had so much hair or because it was so thick, but I could practically feel the roughness from where I stood. As expected, this was a man one should not oppose. If I only got split in half, that would probably count as fortunate.
“If we think of it as an experiment…… how about trying it for just one month?”
“One month, hm. Then those two who came along with you are here intending to do it as well, I assume?”
“Ah, yes.”
Joseph and Alfred surely did not want to be split in half either, so I answered on their behalf. The back of my head felt slightly hot, but I paid it no mind. A bit of pain in the hands was much better than killing people.
Of course, the bastards behind me did not understand my thoughts and ideals, so they jabbed me in the back.
“Good. Then the three of you…… and Blundell. How about you wash your hands as well before entering the ward you just mentioned?”
“As for me…… if it is an experiment, then I should.”
So Blundell ended up washing them too. It was a little frightening to see him glare at me while avoiding Doctor Liston’s eyes. But he did not seem like the sort of man who could do me physical harm. Before he ever got to me, Joseph would probably cut him off first.
“If four people and perhaps one or two assistants wash their hands as well, that should be enough to cover one experimental ward. Then let us do that. I too will watch the results…… and decide whether or not to wash my hands before surgery.”
“Yes, thank you.”
“What is this gratitude for? I am always waiting for fresh ideas.”
To think I had once called such a fine man a butcher.
Reproaching myself for the errors of my past, I came back outside and got punched three times each by Joseph and Alfred.
“Urgh…….”
It hurt. They had hit me seriously.
“Why did you drag us into this!”
“N-Now even Professor Blundell is going to have a grudge against me!”
They each had their reasons. Well, for these bastards, it was understandable. They simply did not know any better.
“Just wait. Because of this, medicine will take one more step forward.”
“Oh, shut the hell up…….”
“Ah…….”
Even though I said that to reassure them, it did no good. They kept grumbling, and the grumbling did not stop even after we got home. If even these fellows, who at least knew I was capable, were like this, what would the others be like?
Maybe if I had only told them to wash with water, it would have been different. Even I had to admit that this was a bit extreme.
“Who the hell are you to tell us whether to wash our hands or not!”
And on top of that, I was a first-year medical student. In a twenty-first-century hospital, there would at least be interns beneath me at the very bottom of the hierarchy, but this was nineteenth-century London. Whether students paid tuition or not, they were lower than the floor beneath the floor.
“This is an instruction from Doctor Robert Liston. Ward One…… you must wash your hands with this.”
But who was I?
I was someone who had gone through every sort of hardship in a previous life.
Besides, what kind of ridiculous response was that when all I was doing was telling medical staff to wash their hands? I ought to have grabbed them by the collar and thrown them to the ground.
“R-Robert…… Doctor Robert Liston?”
“This knife is the proof.”
Of course, nothing like that happened.
I had brought Doctor Liston’s knife with me. Every time I looked at it, I had the urge to scrub it thoroughly once with boiled water, rub it down with soap, and soak it in disinfectant…….
Ugh.
Did it even have curled hairs stuck to it?
At this point, it felt like the knife ought to be tossed straight into a furnace, melted down, and forged again.
“Ah…… then of course we have to wash. Just don’t say I complained.”
“Yes, yes. Of course.”
A thought was just a thought, but Doctor Liston’s knife displayed an effect as great as if it were some kind of imperial seal. In truth, most people cowered at just hearing his name. Even the strong-willed ones were no exception once they saw the knife.
“Who are you to make up new rules like this?”
The strongest resistance I got came from one of my classmates. Colin, for instance. As it turned out, he was not merely rich, but a noble of some sort. Not from one of those overwhelmingly powerful noble families, but still…….
“It is Doctor Robert Liston’s order.”
“I heard you were the one who went and suggested it!”
“It is only part of an experiment.”
“You monkey-like bastard, how dare you…… you can’t even come into anatomy lab because you’re too scared, you lit—”
He had crossed the line by a long shot. But there was very little I could do right now.
Still, what about Alfred instead of me?
“Hey. First-year. If you’re told to wash, then wash.”
“What…… just because you’re a senior, that makes you everything?”
“Not everything, but this is an experiment. Are you not going to wash? Aren’t you a scientist?”
“That…….”
“Should I tell the professor you refuse to take part?”
He was not nobility, but he was one of the newly rich, was he not? And because the two of them were rivals, he had no hesitation in confronting him. On top of that, I was also his lifesaver. Though it was a bit much that he had hit that lifesaver three times just because I proposed washing hands once.
Fortunately, he had some loyalty.
“Damn it.”
Colin’s eyes moved rapidly between me, the chloride of lime, and Doctor Liston’s knife, then he lowered his head and dipped his hands into the chloride of lime.
Anyone would end up like this.
A knife left as proof of long experience, with countless dried clots of blood stuck to it. It looked like a knife risen straight out of hell.
“You just wait.”
People who said just wait were usually not that frightening. But London was an exception. Was it not a city where no small number of corpses were found as dead bodies every single day?
Well…… I can just get around by carriage.
You are a brat living a life that goes only between home, school, and church.
Of course, it was not that I felt no curiosity about the entertainments of this place. But with an extremely high probability, I would obviously end up becoming the plaything instead. If there had been bastards in Upton who discriminated openly, what would London be like? It was so full of rude and ignorant bastards that I could not understand why it had ever been called the land of gentlemen.
“Ah…… my hands hurt!”
“T-that son of a bitch.”
Anyway, for the first few days, Doctor Robert Liston’s authority was enough to get us through without trouble, but that only lasted a day or two. In truth, it was also because Professor Blundell had taken Liston’s knife back. To go do surgery…….
That would not do.
Anyway, once the one responsible for the shocking visual effect disappeared, complaints immediately started pouring in.
“You still have to wash them.”
“No…….”
“Wash them.”
But I was not an easy person either. So long as the other side was not Robert Liston, that was. It was not as if I was doing this for some bad purpose. Was it not all for the sake of saving people?
“Hngh!”
“I said wash them!”
Still, it was hard. I had to cling to every bastard heading into the ward and raise hell. I did not think of it as raising hell, but apparently that was how they saw it. It had gotten to the point where they were not even talking behind my back, but right to my face.
“All right…… let’s go.”
“Hey, we just came from dissection. We’re tired, so move aside.”
But this absolutely would not do. What? You were trying to push through with rotting flesh still stuck to you? You sons of bitches. Would not even that miasma nonsense you prized so highly say this was unacceptable?
“You sons of bitches!”
First I poured out a round of curses in Korean, then I splashed the water beside me. Colin, who stood at the front, looked at me in bafflement.
It felt like the sort of scene where, in a romance drama, the male lead starts falling for the female lead. Like, you’re the first person who’s ever done this to me.
But life was not a romance genre, so he shouted at me, face red.
“W-What are you doing!”
“Cut the crap.”
It did not matter. I smeared the disinfectant on him too.
“Aaagh!”
I could feel in real time just how badly it hurt.
Me?
My senses had gone numb.
“Next. You son of a bitch.”
After seeing me with red eyes and red hands, muttering Korean curses, no one resisted any further.
Was that why?
From then on, there was hardly any resistance.
Yes, and so one month passed.
Doctor Robert Liston and Blundell came to find me and asked,
“So, how is it?”