Lin Baiguang's Comprehensive Management Office is actually located in the municipal government. After Wang Sangou, the general affairs section chief of the municipal office, took office, he changed the office that was originally bustling with people in accordance with the "Regulations on the Management of General Affairs and Administrative Work of Government Agencies" issued by the General Office. The municipal government became standardized and systematic. Super fast and stable update of the novel, this article was originally published by Liu San. If Liu San wants to talk to the indigenous people outside, he can't just ask someone to summon him. He must fill out a "summons form" first, and then the General Affairs Department will send someone to summon him.
It was dark now for Liu, but these were extraordinary times and there was no concept of commuting to and from get off work. All agencies work 24 hours a day and have people on duty at all times. As soon as Liu San's order was sent to the General Affairs Department, Wang Sangou immediately issued a night pass and sent a few retained servants to find the person according to the list.
These medical officers had already gone to bed. After hearing the summons from the newly appointed doctor of the Senate, they quickly got up, put on their robes and shoes, and were led over by the doormen. Before Liu San finished his dinner, four medical officers were already waiting outside the house.
Liu San looked out of the window and saw these people waiting respectfully in the yard. They were all old people according to the standards of this time and space, and one of them had white hair and beard, so he was embarrassed to ask them to wait outside the house for a long time and asked the orderly to let them in first - because he was a senior official dispatched by the ministry, so he occupied the space. The main house of a small courtyard. The bright room of the main house was used as a living room and conference room.
Liu San came out from the inner room with a lunch box. The four medical officers stood together and knelt down to perform the ceremony. Liu San quickly said: "No, no, please sit down."
The medical officers felt a little disdainful when they saw that the great Song Dynasty doctor was not only poorly dressed, but also ate like a peddler and a lackey. He was eating directly from a "rice bowl" - a square iron box. But when they met for the first time a few days ago, they knew that this "classic doctor" was very knowledgeable and had excellent medical theories on pulses and medicinal properties, so they did not dare to underestimate him. Thank you for your seat and sit down.
They were very uneasy in their hearts, once the emperor and the courtiers. "Medicine" medical officers do not need to be awarded by the Ministry of Officials. Even if they are "not in the mainstream", let alone changing dynasties, even if they change the county magistrate, they can tell them to get out at any time. So every time there is a change of county magistrate or prefect. They all work hard to pay bribes to keep their positions.
Once unemployed. Without the aura of a medical officer, life would be extremely difficult for an ordinary bell-ring doctor. Although the income of famous doctors is not low, ordinary doctors can only make ends meet. They are still not up to the level of "famous doctors".
When Liu San met them for the first time, the medical officers pooled their money and gave them a "public gift" of sixty taels. However, Liu San's polite refusal made them confused about the classic doctor's thoughts - especially after someone's private gifts were rejected, everyone felt that he was even more enigmatic.
It was already dark, but they were suddenly summoned. What kind of calculation is this?
Liu San put down his lunch box and said:
"You are all old medical officers in Guangzhou. You come into contact with a lot of patients on weekdays. You are also in charge of setting up medicine in the government. I am new here and I don't know much about the local situation. I need to learn more from you. consult."
Several medical officers quickly stood up and kept saying they didn't dare, and only asked Liu San to "inquire".
"Don't be polite. We are all doctors, and it is our duty to save lives and heal the wounded." Liu San said sincerely, "Don't think about the distinction between superior and inferior. You guys, please first talk about the epidemic situation in Guangzhou."
Liu San wanted to ask about various "epidemics" in spring and autumn and common local diseases during medical practice.
The health department has great concerns about health and epidemic prevention in medieval cities. the reason is simple. There are no anti-epidemic and immune measures in this time and space, and the spread of various pathogens is rampant. The increasingly developed long-distance trade has spread many local infectious diseases to various places.
In the past few years, health clinics have encountered various types of infectious diseases in decontamination camps, with their sources coming from a wide range of regions. The doctors were all surprised. They have encountered almost all the infectious diseases listed in textbooks: smallpox, measles, dysentery, typhoid, diphtheria, encephalitis, dengue fever, cholera, kala-azar, scarlet fever, hepatitis, tuberculosis... Human-infectious diseases have also been detected among northern immigrants. After hearing about the plague, the wooden sheds of the quarantine camp were burned down more than once in Kaohsiung. Syphilis, which was recently introduced in the Ming Dynasty, has also been detected among immigrants, and there are even cases of mother-to-child transmission. Tuberculosis is even more widespread.
Through isolation and quarantine, the simplest and most effective tool, the Senate basically managed to keep out all kinds of serious infectious diseases. But things are not that simple in Guangzhou - Guangzhou is a city located on the mainland and open to all directions, so it is difficult to control the flow of the population. This creates favorable conditions for the spread of disease.
The Sanitary Office originally wanted to inquire about infectious diseases in Guangzhou by searching historical records in the large library, but neither the official local chronicles nor private notes were very clear on such matters. It is simply recorded as "epidemic" or "big epidemic". There are few details beyond the death toll and duration. Even the symptoms are poorly described. No details can be discerned from these crude records.
So Liu Xiang had no choice but to turn to local medical officials - the reason why he asked them was because they were the lower classes of ancient society. Basically, there is no such thing as seeking medical advice. After getting sick, you either have to rely on your own resistance to fight it off. Or pray to God and get a bag of incense ashes, which would be better. It's just a matter of picking up some medicine and taking it yourself when the drug store or charity bureau is dispensing medicine. Those who can invite a doctor to visit and inquire must at least have a certain amount of assets. Therefore, the range of patients faced by doctors is extremely narrow, and the cases they encounter have no universal significance.
Medical officers are staff of "public medical institutions". Whether it is prevention, treatment or aftermath of local plagues and current diseases, the county "medicine" has to come forward. They are also responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of the sick people admitted by various charitable institutions in the county. He has a more comprehensive understanding than the average doctor.
Liu San was eager to understand the specific situation of the infectious disease and to formulate a response plan as soon as possible. The opinion of the health department is to establish a special infectious disease hospital as soon as possible to isolate and house all such patients. This is also a continuation of the traditional practice of quarantine camps - the only feasible method in the absence of medicines.
Liu San first talked about some of his observations in the city over the past few days - he knew that traditional medicine in this time and space did not have a clear concept of hygiene and epidemic prevention, and many issues that modern people thought were easy to contract were not taken seriously at the time. So I only picked out some situations that they could understand.
"...I will be returning to Nantian soon. I know that this is the easiest time for the epidemic to spread. Since our Senate has entered Guangzhou City, we have the responsibility to ensure the safety of this area. Everyone is working together here to ensure the peace of the people here. Young Master Fewer people die when sick. This is an infinite merit."
When these words were said, several medical officers were greatly surprised. They have been veteran medical officers for many years and have seen too many "admonitions" given by new officers when they take office: either they are stern and high-sounding but empty words, or they are "taught" that they should be filial as soon as possible. They have never People talk about curing illnesses and saving lives.
I didn’t expect that this foreign Australian would tell them this first thing as soon as he entered the city! Moreover, this true disciple quietly traveled to many places in the city to visit people and inquire about their sufferings - some places were poor and dirty places that they themselves had never been to - and they were greatly shocked in their hearts. Several of them have been practicing medicine for generations and attach great importance to traditional medical ethics. Liu San's words resonated with them. The oldest medical officer among them, named Hu Ming, stood up tremblingly, cupped his hands and said: "When I first took office, I cared about the sufferings of the people regardless of the fatigue of the carriage, which is really a blessing to the people! Students should do their best. Try your best to serve." Others also echoed.
Now they told one by one what they had seen and heard during their years of medical practice. Liu San listened carefully and took notes in a notebook. Although he himself studied Chinese medicine, many diseases have different names in ancient and modern times, so he specifically asked medical officials to describe the symptoms when describing them.
According to the descriptions of the medical officers, Liu San roughly knew that the most common infectious disease here was influenza - which was not beyond his expectation. But the mortality rate of colds is not low: colds are often complicated by inflammation. In ancient times when antibiotics and antipyretics were lacking, it was not uncommon to die from colds.
Among the severe infectious diseases, the most common ones in Guangzhou are smallpox and cholera. Small-scale infectious diseases occur at any time. Large-scale outbreaks occur every few years. Cholera, in particular, would break out once every seven or eight years, and smallpox outbreaks only occurred every five or six years.
What shocked Liu San most was that from the medical officer's description, he knew that there had been multiple outbreaks of bubonic plague in Guangzhou, some of which lasted for a long time and were very severe, with tens of thousands of people dying.
The Senate's response to the plague could be described as "changed upon hearing the news." I originally thought that the plague was mainly spread in the north, but I didn't expect that an outbreak of plague had also occurred in Guangzhou.
In addition to these three severe infectious diseases with the highest mortality rate, other infectious diseases are also very common according to the symptoms described by medical officials. In particular, intestinal infectious diseases have a high incidence rate, and dysentery is quite common. As for "sha", which has the highest mortality rate in summer, Liu San estimates that most of it is an intestinal infectious disease.
From the descriptions of the medical officers, he also roughly sorted out the various common diseases in Guangzhou in this time and space: scrub typhus, malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis, dysentery, meningitis... Leprosy, which made the ancients blush, is also on the list. .
The medical officers also told him that there is a local bloating disease, in which a person's belly will gradually swell like a drum. Although he will not die immediately, he will inevitably die in the end. No matter what miracle doctor you are, there is nothing you can do. In some villages in Panyu and Nanhai counties, the disease was so severe that no one, no matter the age or sex, was spared, and some villages even died from it. (To be continued.)
