I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 407 Fontelay Abbey Hospital and Sanatorium

   Next, Little Lom took the king and his party to the Fontelay Abbey Hospital, where the research on cowpox was carried out.

The first thing to explain here is that although the King's Royal College of Medicine of Boalou was established in the Castle of Boalou, this castle not only served as the royal city of France, but also lived in no less than seven kings and ten queens, and more. It is the birthplace of Louis XII, so this castle can only be said to be the hall of honor of the medical school. The real address of the medical school is in the Abbey of Angers Fontelay - it is the resting place of the members of the royal family of the Anjou Dynasty. An unspeakable sin.

Louis was not crazy enough to seize the assets of the Fontelay Abbey. Fortunately, the abbot of this Abbey was originally a believer of the Bishop of Mazarin. With his wise cooperation, the Abbey not only became the resident of the medical school, but also became a The largest hospital in France and in the whole of Europa.

Before Louis XIV popularized the concept of the hospital, whether it was a place for believing in God, a true God, or a place for Merlin, a hospital was a complex of various institutions such as nursing homes, workhouses, orphanages, prisons, and cemeteries. Generally speaking, if it is run by a monastery or a church, the sick can at least get some soup and some final comfort. After all, not all priests and nuns are morally corrupt people, but if they are city councils, officials, or If it is run by a chamber of commerce, then the problem is big.

The "hospitals" run by the latter are not so much a place of treatment and recuperation for the sick, but rather a pigpen for the poor and criminals on the streets - madmen, demented children, prostitutes, beggars, old and infirm. People, the sick, and even the unemployed were all imprisoned together, and sometimes the person in charge would brutally divide the men and women into two separate places, and sometimes the procedure was omitted altogether. As few as a few hundred people, as many as several thousand people, tens of thousands of people are crowded into a building with a wall, there is no water, sufficient food, clothing to protect the body from the cold, and those who can work are taken to work , returned to the room at night - the room is usually populated by a large number of people whose bedding is a pile of hay, which is usually quickly saturated with human body heat, bodily fluids and water seeping from the walls, giving off a musty smell .

   No matter how many patients there are in this type of hospital, there is only one doctor. This doctor is undoubtedly used for decoration and prevarication, and of course it is impossible to treat anyone.

Unless he's one of those ardent medical believers, I mean, the kind of lunatic who's nowhere near a criminal who uses the unfortunate people who have lost their autonomy for research and experimentation - such patients are generally psychiatric Patients, because they were healthy and young enough, had a small room, chained to the bed or the wall, covered with fleas and bed bugs, and wounds from rat attacks—which led doctors to leave them The traces below are not so obvious.

  The doctor experimented with the medical methods of soldering iron, guanchang and bloodletting on them, and also experimented with the function of some herbs. Anyway, these people are dumb animals, and they are at their mercy. What makes people wonder how to describe it is that some doctors have actually tested some reliable and effective medical methods.

It is appalling that at this time there is not much recrimination, both legal and moral, for such conduct - if the mentally ill person is a wealthy or well-known person, then he or she will. Imprisoned in a suitable place by his relatives, there will still be servants to serve him until his death. Those who fall into this "hospital" are poor people, and the latter's voice, no matter how sharp and tragic, can't be heard by most people, or they won't care if they hear it.

  Louis was not a philanthropic saint, but he would not have liked to see science advance in this way.

The Fontelay Abbey originally had a hospital, no, it should be said that it was a religious sanatorium. It was believed that bathing in the light of God would cure diseases without cure, which of course was impossible, unless it was originally only some For minor illnesses, the hospital in this monastery has only a dozen rooms, and the only treatments are holy water, herbs and prayers.

The king leased from the abbot a large area of ​​the mountain behind the monastery, and built a row upon row of houses on it, with extravagant use of glass windows, and the outer and inner walls were painted with chalk, which looked like in the sun. An impenetrable palace of ice and snow.

It is not only patients who live here, but also medical students and doctors, as well as nursing staff. The patients who can live here not only depend on their financial resources and status, but also on the severity and particularity of their illnesses—because even those in the medical school. Professors also need to accumulate experience. There has never been a "real" hospital like this before, and doctors' services are limited to the middle and upper class, at least those who can afford the consultation fee, so the contact area is very narrow.

   The result of the narrow contact surface is that the development of medicine has always been very slow, and sometimes even the king is only an experimental material in front of the doctor, although it may not be intentional. But at that time, doctors really only had to "try this, this doesn't work, try that, that doesn't work, try something else..." until the patient was tossed to see God.

  You can't even blame them. To put it cruelly, the foundation of medicine is made of bones. Before the mice and rabbits were sent to the laboratory, human beings were the victims.

   But to be able to die in such a beautiful, clean, warm and comfortable room, or to receive some treatment, without food and clothing, here is a paradise for the poor, and those paramedics and doctors are angels.

Hundreds of years later, it may be difficult for medical staff to believe that there are some patients who can not only accept any kind of medical treatment that may bring all kinds of pain and suffering, but may not be effective, even if the condition deteriorates, they can still calmly. Accept and thank you from the bottom of your heart before going to see God...

   Every patient here, especially the poor who get free medical care.

There are also some young patients who stay here and work as nurses after they have recovered. With a sufficient diet, their bodies are much stronger than the priests and nuns in the monastery, and they can easily move a patient from here to there. , It can also transport various heavy equipment or drinking water for doctors or nurses.

   There are also some people who went to another place not far from here to work as pastoral workers, that is, workers on the ranch. This ranch not only provided milk for monasteries and hospitals, but also provided them with cowpox seedlings.

  Louis didn't disturb too many people. He wore a white linen robe like the doctors here. There were too many people here, and there was always a difference - the nurses wore white aprons like the paramedics in the army. The patients here, whether rich or poor, are accustomed to seeing groups or individual doctors walking around to observe the patient's condition. When a patient comes over and wants to ask something, the doctor around the king will act on his behalf. answer.

   "How many people are there now?" Louis asked.

   "Six thousand, Your Majesty," said Little Lom.

  Louis nodded. When he first built this hospital, the upper limit was 8,000 to 10,000 people. "I thought no one would want to come here, at least not so fast."

"There are Catholics, there are Huguenots, there are Jews, there are Portuguese, there are Spaniards and Englishmen, there are Prussians or Bohemians, there are even Turks." Little Lom wasted no time in complimenting Said: "Your prestige and kindness have spread all over the world. You are generous enough to your enemies, and you are even more loving to your people. Although they are loyal to their king, they have to be subdued by your brilliance."

Louis shook his head: "Pay attention to epidemic prevention." Many epidemic diseases are imported from abroad. In terms of cleaning and protection, he has always set an example and has clear and strict laws and regulations, so there are few large-scale epidemics in the country now. But other countries may not be sure, and as Xiao Lom said, the Royal Medical College and the hospital are famous, and there will inevitably be some patients who have been declared incurable by doctors struggling to come here.

"Everything is in accordance with your orders." Little Lom said that he lacked the fearlessness of Dr. Lom-his father made the beak protective suit to go deep into the epidemic area, but he was very cautious, which was very popular with the king. , he pointed out to the king, "We are all in the position of mild patients, syphilis, tuberculosis, leprosy, chicken pox are all on the right wing. And each disease has been divided into districts." The king has seen the model of this building complex. Yes, it is like a bird with its wings spread, its head is on the top of a mountain, it belongs to those who are honorable and need to hide their identities, one end of the spread wings belongs to non-infectious patients, the other end belongs to infectious patients, the "feathers of the wings" "It's a two- or three-story building with trees and stone walls in the middle.

Down is like an outstretched bird's claws, along the mountain all the way to the multi-storey apartments in the valley, those lucky people who can hardly pay for medical expenses, but are left because of special or typical illnesses live there, there is no way , if no separation is made, maybe some people would rather die than stay with a group of rowdy beggars.

   "The drainage of the infected area is directly drained into the swamp." Little Lom said that the king had also seen the part that was specially lifted.

   "Very well." Louis XIV said that although it was unlikely that the plague would spread through the river, it was better to be careful.

In a place he can't see, there is a new hidden cemetery. The cemetery of the church and the monastery has always been hard to find. Although this cemetery is still some distance away from the monastery, it is for the poor who may not be able to afford the funeral expenses. It's another place to be thankful for.

   "How about the doctors, professors and students?"

Speaking of this, Little Lom frowned a little, "Some are too bold, some are too cautious." He said that there are not very religious people. In this medical school that allows dissection and research on human bodies, people with a little faith are Unable to stay—even some students or professors run away simply because they can't face their conscience—their empathy doesn't allow them to treat their fellow creatures like animals.

At first, Little Lom was still worried about whether these people would affect outsiders' perceptions of the medical school. Some of those who left remained silent and said nothing, while some angrily called it purgatory. Doctors and scholars alike It was the devil, and Louis XIV was Satan—he thought about warning them, but the Duke of Orleans, who was in charge of the place, just laughed and said that this situation was exactly what the king needed.

Sure enough, when some people were discouraged, more daring guys rushed over, and little Lom remembered... His father said that a doctor must have a heart as cold as steel in winter, because weeping and pity , Prayer and repentance can't cure the sick - old Lom, who has traveled several cities as a bird-beak doctor, may have made such a choice long ago.

In the plague-ridden city, Doctor Birdbeak is the judge in charge of life and death. He draws a symbol, a person, a house, and even a street will be tightly closed until all the people inside die. , or survived until no one was sick again.

"I know there's going to be some unworldly dudes involved," Louie said. "So, I'm giving this place to you instead of one of them." Blue eyes stared at Little Lom. "You're not that. A person with talent or courage, that's not what I ask of you, Lom, you know where my bottom line is, you have to help me control them, and I will make this a holy city of hope , not a lunatic asylum."

   Little Lom nodded in awe.

Louis sighed softly, he noticed that someone was staring at him, and although the doctors were wearing simplified beak masks, it was hard to say if anyone with a keen sense of his identity, he left before being recognized. opened.

  ——

   Fontelay Abbey Hospital is not purgatory, but there is a place that is.

   That's the Blazer Institute for Medical Research.

  The Blazer Institute for Medical Research has been regarded as a club with a wacky name for hundreds of years, because not a single doctor has produced papers or evidence, not even a single case.

Of course there is no   , because this institute is not aimed at mortals, but wizards, werewolves and vampires in the inner world.

The idea of ​​the members of the Sanguinary Council is right. Louis XIV is indeed not the kind of person who is submissive. Even if his enemy is not a human being, he managed to appease Theoderic and Amon. At the same time, he is also thinking about how to rule France in the dark— He already knows how to use wizards and how to control werewolves, but vampires are indeed the most powerful and unknowable race in the world, unless there are people who belong to Louis completely.

But this is impossible. Once a human becomes a vampire, he will no longer think from the standpoint of a human. Unless Louis also becomes a vampire, he will not be able to guarantee the loyalty of the other party at all, not to mention, there are still ranks among the vampires. The implication and suppression of blood relatives, these problems Louis can not even explore in depth, let alone solve.

   (end of this chapter)