Episode 79: Pain [2]
Arsenic. The form most commonly encountered in daily life would probably be rat poison. I couldn’t believe they were thinking of giving patients something that was basically the active ingredient in rat poison. I tried to feel a little guilty, but my resolve hardened again when I thought about the patients here.
“Yes, then please. But how will you run the experiment…? Are you actually going to do it?”
“Well, if we process it with fire like this and try various things, maybe something will come out of it.”
“Ah.”
Ah! Was that all a chemist could say?
No… was there even such a thing as a chemical formula yet?
It seemed like I hadn’t seen one. So how could I expect anything more civilized than that? What this meant was that even if this man and other chemists tried the same thing, they had no chance of producing Salvarsan, or arsenic compound No. 606, just by heating arsenic.
“Then let’s go. Don’t worry. I’m good at chemistry.”
“Ah, yes.”
I thought I had come for nothing after only doing favors for Blundell and Liston, but I soon changed my mind. Wasn’t this era a place where you couldn’t survive without infinite positivity? I felt like I was losing my mind just trying to think positively, but I had no time to be frustrated.
Okay… bread… let’s buy some bread.
Let’s buy bread and let it rot at home…
Wait. Fleming was British, right?
This was England too. Would the same fungus grow here? Besides, it rained often in London, and more than anything, it was dirty… It seemed like an ideal environment.
Yes, it shouldn’t be like this… Let’s grow bacteria.
What did you need to grow bacteria? None other than a culture medium. You might wonder how to make a culture plate, but it was surprisingly easy. If you were interested in physiology or microbiology as a student, your professors would tell you. They taught you that you could even grow cultures at home.
“Agar…”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Let’s buy some agar-agar.”
“Uh…? Suddenly? You want to go to the market? A gentleman doesn’t go to places like that.”
“I live for experiments. Not cooking.”
“Ah.”
If you hardened agar-agar water, didn’t it turn to jelly? That was perfect for growing fungi. If it wasn’t enough, I could sprinkle some sugar, but sugar was quite expensive at this time, so that would be difficult. It was fine. Agar-agar alone would do. Anyway, I persuaded my unwilling companions in the name of experimentation and bought a bunch of bread, agar-agar, and other supplies.
“Next, willow trees.”
“Huh…? What is wrong with him today?”
“Let’s go somewhere with willow trees.”
“No…”
While I was out, I dug up some willow bark. I sighed heavily at the thought of mixing it up and feeding it to people, but what could I do? If I stayed quiet, it felt like the screams from the amputation ward would keep pounding in my ears. If there was something I could do, shouldn’t I do it?
“When I brewed this and drank it, the pain stopped.”
“Isn’t that because you died? No, I’m kidding. Why are you glaring at me like that?”
When we got home and looked at the willow bark, Alfred laughed at me. It didn’t help that the color made it look unappetizing. What I imagined as a mild herbal medicine looked… messy.
This is a bit… doesn’t it look too crude?
The good news was that it didn’t smell bad, but the color was enough to put off anyone who wasn’t seriously ill. Well, that was okay. Patients here accepted treatment no matter how questionable the remedy seemed. Not because they trusted the hospital, but because no one came here unless they were very sick.
“What is this?”
I didn’t know if it was because I was glaring at him or because he feared I would tell him to eat it, but Joseph Lister pointed at the agar. I couldn’t answer easily because I had reached the point where I wanted to know more myself. I had an agar plate… or rather, I hadn’t really made one myself. Some kind of thin, wet layer was oozing out, and I couldn’t figure out how to dry it into the agar I remembered.
“Something might not work out. If anything happens, I’ll tell you.”
“Hmm… there’s no hope on that face… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But I couldn’t do any better, so I gave it a rough try.
“This bread… why did you put it all here?”
The questions kept coming. This time it was Alfred. Honestly, it was a good question. Who in their right mind cut bread into small pieces and laid them out on a desk? Dozens of pieces, sprinkled with some water.
“I don’t have a fever.”
Joseph touched my forehead worriedly. When someone had a fever, they tried to remove the cause and cut their hair… They were managing well enough, so I just shook my head.
“In an old book from Joseon… about rotten bread… no, it records someone being cured of a fever after eating moldy rice, not bread.”
By the time bread came up, it was normal for old stories to be dismissed. But British children, past and present, had a British Empire mindset similar to Sinocentrism, so they showed little interest in other cultures. No, on the contrary, wouldn’t it be stranger if I told them we didn’t eat bread but rice as our staple?
“Okay? On stale bread?”
“Oh… mold has that kind of effect?”
Look at that. They didn’t even ask about the rice after that. I didn’t know if my ears filtered it out, but whenever someone mentioned another culture, I just ignored it. It was extreme back then. Truly the British Empire.
“Yes, I’ll take a look first.”
“Then shall we try to save some patients with fever?”
Anyway, after I tried to convince him, Joseph said something strange. I blinked, wondering what was going on, and the two of them started talking without me.
“Yes, if there are records, it’s right to check.”
“Huh. If the bread rots, let’s cut off the moldy part and feed it to them.”
“So if the patient survives, it really works.”
“Or not… should I try feeding them another fungus?”
“Is that so?”
Crazy bastards. They were talking so excitedly about killing people. Looking back, it was true that medical science developed because of this reckless experimental spirit… Meanwhile, tears came to my eyes as I thought of the innocent victims.
“No, no! How can you use it directly on a patient?”
First of all, I didn’t mean just placing it on the desk. I meant placing samples all around the house.
“Why?”
“If all kinds of mold grow here, they won’t all be the same.”
“Huh…?”
Ah. Back then, no one knew about bacteria, let alone fungi. Moving history forward was difficult in many ways. While respecting the heroes of the alternate-history novels I had read to kill time, I spoke quietly.
“Mold grows everywhere. Not all molds are the same.”
“Is that so…?”
“I don’t know.”
It wasn’t easy to speak quietly. I had to control a heart that felt ready to explode.
“Let’s see if that’s true this time. Anyway, don’t cut it off and feed it to anyone, because it will rot.”
“Uh… yes, what.”
“Okay.”
“Really. You can’t feed it to anyone. How did you even come up with feeding mold to people?”
“You said you were going to feed it.”
“Understood.”
As I took a deep breath, Joseph, quick-witted as always, nodded.
“Okay, okay. I’ll wait for now.”
“Okay…”
I was glad he was reasonable.
“But doesn’t this mean we’ll feed this tomorrow?”
Alfred then pointed to the willow bark water I had brewed. It looked so crude that it shattered the credibility of what I had said.
That’s strange… I don’t know if it’s a gorgon or something, but it looks quite bad…
Why were there so many impurities? Should I have cleaned the bark better? First of all, the black bits were strange. But I couldn’t tell if this was really abnormal or not. To be honest, would twenty-first-century Korean doctors throw away willow bark because they thought it was too messy? They would just give the medicine if you needed it… This was normal.
“Uh… huh.”
“That doesn’t work, but this does?”
“This… is okay…”
“That sounds strange.”
“Anyway, don’t feed anyone mold!”
“Ah, okay. Okay. He’s really fierce today.”
In times like these, the best thing was to lose my temper and move on. If it seemed petty, that was true, and I had nothing to say. What could I do? I knew I was right, but there was no way to explain it.
Hmm… it hasn’t rotted yet… The good news is that this looks more plausible.
When morning came, I looked at the bread, agar water, and willow bark water one by one. The agar-agar looked similar to the agar I had seen before. I spread it on several plates and pressed my palms and the soles of my feet against them one after another.
“What… what are you doing?”
“You too. Come and take some samples.”
“Why… why? Isn’t this some kind of ritual?”
“Ritual?”
“Why… heresy…”
“No, no. It’s an experiment.”
“An experiment…?”
Even thinking about it, putting white stuff on plates and pressing bare hands and feet onto them sounded more like a suspicious ritual than an experiment… In any case, I answered firmly that it wasn’t. Joseph reluctantly followed my gaze, but I noticed he was quietly reciting the Lord’s Prayer, especially the line, “But deliver us from evil.” It was unfair.
Just wait and see.
It was so unfair that I felt resentful, but I had nothing to say.
“That… you’re taking that with you?”
“Uh.”
“That pot… it looks heavy…”
“You still have to take it. I have to go and make them worry about this too.”
“Are you really sure this isn’t a ritual?”
“I said it isn’t.”
I also brought the willow bark water. Now that I thought about it, the pot looked like a witch’s cauldron, which made me uncomfortable, but I hardened my resolve. For now, I would focus only on the patients in the amputation ward. Then my weakening will grew stronger. If I could alleviate the suffering of patients in hell itself… I could carry a real witch’s cauldron on my back.
“That… why are you keeping your distance from me?”
“Huh? Did it feel that way? It’s not that.”
“You’re still walking too fast.”
“Oh, no. I’m not.”
The bastards who didn’t understand the significance of such a big moment started practically running as soon as we arrived at the hospital. Regardless, I headed to the amputation ward, salvation for those inside. No, since those bastards kept saying “ritual,” strange words slipped out of my mouth without me realizing it.
“Please… please release me…”
Anyway, the first thing that caught my eye as I entered was Killian. The tough Irish sailor now had the world’s tiniest eyes after a single day in the amputation ward.
Translator’s Notes
Arsenic — Toxic chemical element historically used in poisons and later in controlled medicinal compounds.
Rat poison — Common poison used to kill rodents; arsenic compounds were historically associated with such use.
Salvarsan / Arsenic compound No. 606 — Early arsenic-based drug developed for treating syphilis.
Chemical formula — Symbolic representation of a chemical compound’s composition.
Penicillin — Antibiotic derived from mold, later used to treat bacterial infections including syphilis.
Fleming — Refers to Alexander Fleming, the British scientist credited with discovering penicillin.
Culture medium — Nutrient material used to grow microorganisms in experiments.
Culture plate — A flat dish containing culture medium used to grow bacteria or fungi.
Agar-agar — Gel-like substance derived from seaweed, used in microbiology as a culture medium.
Willow bark — Bark from willow trees; contains salicin, a compound related to aspirin and historically used for pain relief.
Fungi — Organisms including molds and yeasts. Some fungi can produce medically useful substances, while others can cause disease.
Mold — A type of fungus. Not all molds are medically useful or safe.
Lord’s Prayer — Christian prayer; Joseph’s recitation reflects fear that Pyeong’s experiment looks like a suspicious ritual.