Chapter 41 From Smallpox to Cowpox

In addition to awe, Ying Zheng also felt fortunate.

"Fortunately, according to Tianmu, the smallpox virus was introduced to China after the Qin Dynasty."

"Those terrible smallpox viruses cannot harm the people of our Great Qin."

"But when I find a way to continue the Great Qin, I will definitely lead the Great Qin to prevent smallpox in advance!"

Jin Dynasty.

Alchemist Ge Hong couldn't help but sigh as he watched the video on the sky curtain describing the horrors of smallpox.

Ge Hong was a Taoist priest, a soldier, an alchemist, and a scientist.

But he is also a doctor.

In the course of practicing medicine, Ge Hong naturally also saw smallpox.

I deeply understand the horror of this plague.

Ge Hong also specifically emphasized that smallpox is extremely contagious.

Before this, Ge Hong had written some prescriptions for treating smallpox based on his many years of clinical experience.

While taking the medicine, you also need to take a herbal bath to reduce inflammation of the skin on the body that has ulcerated due to smallpox.

Is it useful?
Ge Hong thought he was useful.

But it's only useful in limited situations.

Only those who are lucky enough and take their own medicine can barely survive.

A large number of patients will still die miserably.

This once made Ge Hong doubt:
Is my own prescription useless?

It was not until later when the sample size was large enough that Ge Hong was barely able to confirm that his prescription was somewhat effective.

Now it seems that there is a way to defeat smallpox on the canopy.

As a doctor, Ge Hong was also excited and his hands were trembling.

Get your pen and paper ready and wait for the lecture to begin.

The sky continues.

[The smallpox virus is so terrible that it has ravaged the entire history of human civilization. ]

[During the thousands of years, doctors from ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad, have also been studying how to treat and prevent the disease. ]

[First of all, with the level of technology in ancient times, it was impossible to treat smallpox. ]

[Whether it was drinking herbs, bloodletting, medicinal baths...all kinds of local and foreign remedies, at the level of medicine at the time, basically could only serve as a placebo and make the patient feel a little more comfortable.]

【The treatment of smallpox is basically all about luck.】

【Since we can’t cure it, we should find ways to prevent and control it. 】

[The ancients discovered long ago that people who had contracted smallpox once would never contract it again.]

【For example, in medieval Europe. 】

【The rampant spread of various viruses such as smallpox has caused many people to place their spiritual hopes on religion. 】

[After contracting smallpox, he went to the priests and nuns to complain, and ended up infecting them with the virus, causing countless monks and nuns to be infected with smallpox.]

[Of course, many of them died.]

[But many people survived and became pockmarked. ]

[But it also gave them the ability to be in contact with smallpox patients all day without worrying about infection. ]

[Later, when the Vikings went to plunder Western Europe, they found a large number of pockmarked nuns in the churches.]

[This frightened the Vikings greatly.]

[They believe this is a religion that can disfigure people, so they often attack and destroy churches.]

[But as more samples were collected, people discovered that the pockmarked priests and nuns in the church had all had smallpox.]

[But they also never got smallpox again.]

[It gradually became established that a single infection with smallpox conferred lifelong immunity.]

[Similar discoveries have been made all over the world.]

[This also inspired ancient doctors. ]

[The earliest prototype of vaccination for the prevention and control of smallpox appeared in ancient India and China. ] [The idea is also very simple. ]

[If we let people get a mild case of smallpox first, wouldn't that prevent them from getting smallpox for the rest of their lives? ]

[As early as the Tang Dynasty, there were records that letting smallpox patients apply pox to each other had a certain function in preventing and controlling smallpox infection.]

[There is also the pox clothing method. 】

[It means taking the underwear of smallpox patients and giving it to children who have not yet developed smallpox to wear for a few days to make them feverish.]

[The early methods had low success rates and high risks, so they were not widely used.]

【After the Song Dynasty, the smallpox method appeared. 】

[The most classic method of smallpox vaccination is to use the pus and scabs from the smallpox patient, dry them in the sun, grind them into powder, and then blow them into the nostrils of the person being vaccinated with a bamboo tube.]

[This will cause the other person to be infected with a mild form of smallpox.]

[You will have a fever and acne, but mild smallpox virus is usually not fatal. ]

[After a few days, he recovered and became an immune person who would never get smallpox again.]

[After the Ming Dynasty, the smallpox method was improved and widely spread, playing a key role in the prevention and control of smallpox by the Han nationality.]

Outside the sky.

When Zhang Jue saw the method of vaccination introduced by Tianmu, he first suddenly understood and then became ecstatic.

Zhang Jiao, who has been practicing medicine at the grassroots level for many years, is naturally no stranger to smallpox.

The magic water that I added herbs to has miraculous effects on many diseases.

But once you encounter a smallpox patient, it's basically a waste of time.

Can I survive?

It all depends on the other person’s fate!

Although no one complained because the Taiping Dao Fu Shui could not cure smallpox.

But Zhang Jue still hoped in his heart that his magic water could cure smallpox.

Now Tianmu explained the principles of preventing and controlling smallpox.

I didn’t expect it to be so simple!
After a brief explanation of Tianmu, Zhang Jiao understood the principle and how to operate it.

Zhang Jiao felt that he could try it now!
But the sky screen continued to play.

Zhang Jue continued to watch patiently.

After introducing the smallpox method invented by China.

Tianmu began to introduce the highlight, which was the cowpox method that truly eradicated the smallpox virus.

[With the help of the smallpox method, there was indeed no large-scale smallpox outbreak in the Qing Dynasty. ]

[But there are still small-scale outbreaks from time to time.]

[And the risk of smallpox vaccination is still relatively high. ]

[Some people died from severe smallpox due to excessive exposure to the virus during vaccination.]

[But in any case, the smallpox method saved many people in China. ]

[At the same time, Europe was still suffering from the ravages and destruction of smallpox. ]

[Although they have gradually come into contact with the smallpox method introduced from China, it has never been rolled out on a large scale.]

[It was not until the 18th century that British doctor Edward Jenner noticed a phenomenon.

[The women who milk the cows rarely get smallpox.]

[After further observation, it was discovered that cattle also had a disease similar to smallpox.]

【Cowpox! 】

[The symptoms of cowpox are very similar to those of human smallpox, and the smallpox in cows can also be transmitted to humans.]

[But for people who get smallpox, the symptoms are very mild and hardly pose any life-threatening risk.]

[The milkers reported that as long as they had had cowpox, they would not get smallpox.]

【Now I have found the idea. 】

(End of this chapter)