1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 44 Cholera Strikes
The dry air was filled with a strong smell of excrement. Out of caution, Robinson did not dare to touch them directly with his hands.

Just watch them from a distance.

These patients were emaciated and had symptoms of dehydration to varying degrees.

Robinson's glazed eyes fell on a mother and daughter, the most dehydrated of them all.

"Doctor, please save her!"

My mother was slumped on the ground, Dr. Robinson's doctor Gao Ming has already spread throughout the goldfields of Sacramento.

It is rumored that there are only two people in California who can cure cholera. One is the new king of California, Liang Yao, and the other is Dr. Robinson, whose medical skills are rumored to be miraculous.

Liang Yao is now in San Francisco, but in Sacramento, only Doctor Robinson can treat them.

The mother and daughter ruthlessly pulled out the unbearable memory deep in Robinson's memory.

He thought of his wife and daughter.

In the 19s, cholera swept across the eastern United States almost overnight, killing countless people from the horrific epidemic.

Dr. Robinson had a happy family, but cholera ruined everything for him.

His wife and children died in the epidemic one after another, but as a doctor, he was helpless against cholera and could only watch his wife and daughter die in front of him.

His original intention to come to California was not to seek gold, but to escape, to escape from cholera, to escape the painful memory that could not be recalled.

He hopes that in this new place, he can bid farewell to his past self and start a new life.

Unexpectedly, in less than two years, the disease also invaded California.

Is this God's punishment for human greed?Like the Black Death in the Middle Ages?

"Sorry, I need to calm down."

Robinson turned around and hid in his residence, despite countless people calling his name behind him, treating him as a savior sent by God.

Boston company employees kept the patients out so they wouldn't harass Robinson.

Robinson is now not only their doctor, but also the leader of their Boston company.

Robinson hid in his bedroom and cried, venting his emotions to his heart's content.

After calming down, Robinson began to open his medical log.

There were cholera outbreaks in the Sacramento area and San Francisco before, but those were sporadic cases. He also cured several cases by himself, and Captain Weber was one of them.

The only concentrated outbreak of cholera in California was in San Francisco around Christmas time, but it didn't last long
This is due to Brannan. Although Brannan was a reckless man, he took the simplest and rude way to end the cholera at Christmas in 1849.

Compared with the eastern region, the cholera here seems to come irregularly.

The peak period of cholera in the eastern region is from June to September, and California has already had a large-scale cholera outbreak around Christmas, and only half a year later, cholera has made a comeback.

This made Robinson at a loss, more and more clueless.

Robinson carefully analyzed the cases he had treated. There were Americans, British, French, and Germans, but there were no Chinese.

Unlike those idiots in the mining area who mistaken cholera as Chinese cholera, Robinson, as a doctor, is very sober, and the epidemic does not discriminate between races.

In order to treat his wife, he had turned to several British doctors for help.

Cholera broke out in Britain earlier than in the United States, and Robinson believed at the time that British doctors must have a way to cure the disease.

It's just that British doctors can't do anything about it, but Robinson still learned from British doctors that cholera treats the British, Americans, Africans, Indians and Chinese equally.

There have been cases of cholera in these places.

Almost all Chinese people lived under Liang Yao's management, perhaps Liang Yao knew more about this infectious disease than he did.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why all the people who contracted cholera were white people, and the Chinese under Liang Yao's management had not had a single case of cholera.

Robinson hurried to the Sacramento pier and bought a ticket to San Francisco.

The cholera outbreak was not limited to the goldfields of Sacramento, because of the dire conditions in Old Town San Francisco, cholera was rampant there as well.

There are also rumors that are unfavorable to Chinese immigrants, claiming that the epidemic was deliberately brought to California by the Chinese, deliberately intensifying the contradictions between Chinese immigrants and immigrants from other regions.

Obviously, these rumors were aimed at him, Liang Yao.

"It may be accidental that talk of this kind of conspiracy is only happening in one place, but it's happening at the same time in the goldfields of Sacramento and San Francisco. I think someone must be behind the scenes."

Liang Yao looked at the information collected from Sacramento and San Francisco by the Loyalty Society's eyeliner. The word "Chinese cholera" seemed so glaring to him.

"Check, we must investigate thoroughly, especially those dishonest gold digging companies in Sacramento, pay close attention to me.

Regardless of whether it is the Loyalty Society or the Legion, once someone finds out that someone is making trouble with this reason, there is no need to be soft-handed, and there is no need to ask for instructions. You can shoot and kill them directly. "

Several senior members of the Loyalty Society and the captains of the Legion led the way.

When Brannan was still around, Liang Yao and these white gold mining companies were able to work together to resist Brannan's tyrannical rule in California.

Now that the common enemy is gone, it is expected that a small number of white people will have a rift with him. After all, in essence, he and these gold digging companies are also competing with each other.

In the face of these provocations, he must give a strong counterattack.

All the land in the Sacramento area belongs to him, and those gold mining companies have signed a land lease contract with him. According to the contract, he has the right to take back the land at any time. This is his trump card.

When necessary, he didn't mind killing the gold digging companies that opposed him.

Even without reclaiming the land, he'd be able to choke their necks on food supplies and gold panning supplies.

There is no essential difference between Liang Yao and Brannan. If there is any difference, it is that his control over California is far deeper than that of Brannan, and has penetrated into every aspect of Californian life.

He rebuilt the roads, opened up the air routes, provided clothes and food, and even built the public toilets where he shit.

Brannan wanted to make money in California, Liang Yao not only wanted to make money in California for a long time, he wanted more things than Brannan.

It can be said that California has reached the point where without Liang Yao, Californians cannot live normally.

The prospecting team of the Astor family, the disobedient white gold digging company, cholera, there are so many troubles.

"Liang Yao, I need your help. You can keep the Chinese people away from cholera. You must be very familiar with this epidemic."

Robinson, who always paid attention to his image, had disheveled hair and his clothes were covered with dust and sludge. He stood in front of Liang Yao, hoping that Liang Yao could help him.

"It's a Californian, we are all Californians." Liang Yao got up and said to Robinson, "Doctor Robinson, you haven't had dinner yet, wash your hands and have dinner with me."

"I recalled my experience of fighting against cholera in Boston in the early years. The peak period of cholera is from June to September. In California, the outbreak of cholera is irregular. Do you know the reason?"

After washing his hands and taking a seat in the restaurant, Robinson cut a piece of meat with a silver table knife and stuffed it into his mouth. He didn't eat from noon to night, and he was really hungry.

The meat had a strong smell of blood, and it was not domestic livestock, but fresh moose meat. Liang Yao could always get things from the Indians that white people couldn't get.

"It is the climate. The eastern part of the United States is hot and humid from June to September, which is more conducive to the spread of cholera, while the climate of California is closer to that of southern France and Italy. Although the summer is hot, it is dry, and the winter temperature is low, but it is rainy and humid. .

That's why cholera appears to be irregular in California. If you want to cure cholera in California, you can't start from this aspect. "

"I don't have the ability." Robinson shook his head, "The person who can cure cholera in the entire California region is not me, but you.

Although you said that you are not a doctor and have never studied medicine, you are the person I have met who knows the most about cholera. There was also an outbreak of cholera in your hometown, and have you defeated cholera? "

Robinson had to admit that Liang Yao knew much more about cholera than his colleagues.

"Of course, don't you call cholera Chinese cholera? Chinese immigrants have a better understanding of Chinese cholera and it is also a matter of cleaning up."

Liang Yao was not talking out of anger. Cholera originated from that magical holy river in India, the Ganges Delta.

This kind of epidemic has a short incubation period. In the early years, due to the limited level of transportation technology, it has been only jumping in India.

It was not until the arrival of the British that cholera was able to follow the British fleet and spread to all parts of the world.

Cholera in the United States originated in Europe.

If it is necessary to add the first place name before cholera, it will also be called "Indian cholera", just as the Spanish flu is actually the American flu.

In the war of conquest of India, the number of British soldiers who died of cholera was as high as [-], which was much higher than the number of British soldiers who died directly on the battlefield.

Cholera also broke out in the Guangzhou area in the early years, and its source was the sailors of the British East India Company fleet.

While enjoying the convenience brought by technological progress and globalization, human beings have to bear the cost of globalization, and infectious diseases are one of them.

(End of this chapter)