1840 Indian Rebirth

Chapter 65 [Antibiotics]

Shi Ya entered the door and said: "Sanxue is going to die! Come and see, maybe you can save her."

The horse whistle got up quickly and followed him out of the chief's hall.

Soon, they came to a wooden house.

There are already many people in the house, including the red girl and the little sparrow.

"Brother Whistle, Sister Sanxue has been in a coma for a long time, can you revive her?" Little Sparrow saw him coming in and said immediately.

"Let me see first." The horse whistle passed through the crowd, and then saw a girl lying on the bed. She was 15 years old and had a slightly thin body.

At this moment, Sanxue was lying unconscious on the bed, her face was sallow, her lips were dry, and she looked terribly weak.

The horse whistle stretched out his hand, and then he couldn't help but feel frightened—high fever, and it's not an ordinary high fever, at least forty degrees.

As for the cause of the high fever, of course it was a postpartum infection. Sanxue had just given birth a few days ago.

Although Ma Shao had asked the clansmen to marry late, and repeatedly emphasized "early marriage and weak race", Sanxue was already pregnant long before he proposed this, so he naturally couldn't control it.

Sanxue's body was not thick enough, and the result was a dangerous childbirth. She finally gave birth to a child, but it caused serious postpartum infection.

Ma Shao had also had serious wound infections before, but his strong physique was obviously not comparable to that of ordinary people. As a weak mother, Sanxue's body functions were even more fragile.

It seemed that she probably couldn't make it through.

Unless there are antibiotics, it's just how troublesome the preparation of penicillin is.

It is really not difficult to find some mold, but it is extremely difficult to extract clean penicillin from it. Even if it is extracted, the yield is also a problem.

In the [-]th century, Dr. Fleming discovered the miraculous penicillin. After that, he spent a month and failed to extract enough penicillin for a patient. After that, he only produced a few kilograms in ten years.

As a result, the price of penicillin was once much more expensive than the equivalent weight of gold, even hundreds of times.

Production of penicillin did not increase substantially until the latter part of World War II.The post-World War II period is exactly a century away from now.

"... Teacher, have you danced yet?" The horse whistle was helpless.

"I've skipped all the dances, but I still can't do it, so I came to you." Shi Ya said, "Is there nothing you can do?"

The horse whistle was silent for a moment, and finally sighed slightly: "Keep ventilation, don't be stuck in the room, and wash her body with strong alcohol."

This is the only way to go, I hope Sanxue can survive.

Everyone also heard the meaning behind the words, and left with a sigh.

The horse whistle also turned and left the room.

The little sparrow followed from behind and ran up to him: "Brother Whistle, is there really no other way?"

The horse whistle shook his head.

Little Sparrow was still unwilling to accept this fact, hugged his arm and said: "Brother Whistle, everyone says you are the messenger of the Great Spirit. If you think about what the Great Spirit has told you, there must be a way. Sister Sanxue She is so nice!"

"I'm not an envoy of God." Ma Whistle blurted out, then paused, "At least, I don't believe that I am an envoy of God. I have never seen the Great Spirit, and the Great Spirit has never said anything to me."

The little sparrow lowered his head: "But, but..."

Ma Whistle patted her on the head and sighed: "Birth, old age, sickness and death are the most basic laws of nature, and we have to accept it."

The little sparrow didn't speak anymore, the two stood here, and the air was quiet for a while.

Just when the awkward atmosphere loomed, Ma Shao's eyes suddenly focused, as if he had noticed something.

Not far in front of them, at the door of a wooden house, hung a kind of crop that was a little strange to many Indians-garlic.

The garlic is of course from Clark Town.

Since the discovery of garlic in Clark Town, some tribesmen will buy some from time to time and use it as a condiment.

Looking at the garlic hanging on the door, Ma Shao's eyes gradually brightened.

Allicin!
Penicillin is not the only antibiotic, how could he forget this!

Allicin is also an antibiotic and is far easier to prepare than penicillin.

More importantly, even if allicin fails to be produced, it will not bring additional risks. After all, garlic itself is a kind of food.In contrast, penicillin needs to be extracted from mold. If the extraction fails, mold and other substances are brought in, and then given to patients, the consequences may be unpredictable.

Of course, as far as Ma Shao knows, allicin seems to be mainly a veterinary drug in later generations. For example, if it is mixed in feed to feed pigs and fish, the effect on humans should not be very satisfactory.

But there is no risk anyway, patients are dying, why not give it a try?
"Brother Whistle?" Little Sparrow was a little frightened by Ma Whistle's bright eyes, and waved his hand in front of him.

"Gather all the garlic of the whole family, immediately!" Ma Shao reacted and said hastily, "There is still a bag of spirits!"

The little sparrow was startled, and then said pleasantly: "Have you figured out a way?"

Ma Shuo said: "I'm not sure yet, but let's move fast, Sanxue may not survive tonight!"

The garlic of the whole family was quickly collected, and the quantity was quite a lot, dozens of bunches.

"Mash the garlic, the more crushed the better." Ma Whistle ordered, and the clansmen got to work one after another, smashing the garlic with sticks on a clean wooden board to a pulp.

Garlic itself does not contain allicin.

Only when it is smashed and smashed, the sulfide inside the garlic will go through a series of chemical reactions and finally generate allicin.

There are many chemical reactions that take place, but the operation is actually very simple.

As long as the garlic is crushed and then left to stand for 10 minutes to half an hour, allicin is produced.

Then there is the collection of allicin.

Allicin is insoluble in water, but easily soluble in some organic solvents, such as alcohol.So what Mashao needs to do next is to soak the mashed garlic in spirits, and change a batch of mashed garlic every hour to increase the concentration of allicin as much as possible.

The efficiency of doing like this is very low, also troubles when taking medication.A better way is steam distillation, oil-water separation, and direct injection of high-purity allicin. However, there is not even a flask right now, so this is the only way to go.

After changing six batches of mashed garlic, the time has come to night.

After absorbing the allicin in six batches of mashed garlic, the sachet of spirits had turned yellow, and it was still a bit viscous due to the rough filtration.

Ma Shao felt that it was almost done, so he brought the bag of wine to the room where Sanxue was.

The wine bag was opened, and several people in the room were so smoked that they covered their noses one after another, and the pungent garlic smell mixed with the smell of alcohol rushed to their faces.

"What is this?" the red girl asked.

"A new medicine, you can call it 'garlic wine'." Ma Shao explained, "The taste of good medicine is always bad, I hope this can help Sanxue."

"Sanxue was saved?" People said in surprise.

Ma Shao broke into a sweat: "No, I'm not sure yet, don't have too much hope."

He really didn't dare to guarantee the curative effect of such crude allicin.Moreover, even high-purity allicin cannot cure all diseases.

Ma Shao carefully poured the wine into Sanxue's mouth...

(End of this chapter)