At that time, Zhu Xiongying should have been nine years old, and he was already past the high-risk age of child death. And Queen Ma has just turned fifty, her body is very strong, and she usually doesn't even have a headache and brain fever.

In addition to malignant infectious diseases, there is no way to explain how such two people could get a sudden illness together and die one after another within a few days.

In addition, after Queen Ma fell ill, she did not let the imperial doctor diagnose and treat herself.

She said that if she can't heal herself too well, the emperor will definitely kill them to vent her anger. So they simply don't let them see themselves. This shows that Queen Ma knows that the imperial doctor can't cure her illness.

So there is little explanation for it other than a malignant infectious disease that can kill people. As mentioned earlier, the biggest possibility in the Nanjing area is smallpox.

~~

The smallpox epidemic in the palace at that time caused a huge shadow in the heart of the fifth brother, who was already sensible at that time, and it was also the reason why he decided to study medicine.

Although it is very cruel, Zhu Zhen feels that under the current medical conditions, isolation is the most effective means to deal with this terrible infectious disease.

The fifth brother felt that this method was too negative. As a healer, you should take the initiative to challenge the pox plague and defeat it!

So he has been studying the writings and medical cases in this area. After studying for a long time, one day, the fifth brother excitedly told the sixth brother that he had found a way to prevent smallpox from the medical skills of the Song Dynasty - planting human pox!

scared the sixth brother so much that he was urinating, and quickly told the fifth brother, you better try cowpox, that one is much safer.

~~

The smallpox virus was introduced to the mainland of China in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

It is said that when the Fubo general Ma Yuan was in Pingding Annan and escorted the captive squad back to the court, the soldiers were infected by the captives, and they developed terrible pox diseases one after another. In the end, most of them died of illness, and the death was extremely tragic......

Then this terrible disease entrenched itself in our country, and for thousands of years it continued to exert its coercion, taking people's lives regardless of whether they were high or low.

Generations of doctors, in the struggle with smallpox, have discovered that the 'human pox method' can be used to prevent smallpox. It is to use the pus and scabs from smallpox patients as pox seedlings and plant them in healthy people, so as to obtain smallpox immunity.

However, human pox vaccination is very dangerous, and it is basically a matter of luck, and if you encounter a vaccinia with weak toxicity, you can safely touch the battle. When encountering a highly toxic pox vaccine, it is basically not much different from getting smallpox, and the lethality rate is also quite high.

The so-called 'none of the Miao Shun people died, and the Miao murderers survived eight out of ten', according to the research of the fifth brother, the mortality rate of vaccination was one-fifth.

The mortality rate from natural infection with pox is one-third, and not everyone will be infected with smallpox in their lifetime, so in fact, even if an individual does not have pox, the probability of dying from smallpox is much less than one-third. The risk-reward ratio is too low.

Therefore, the 'human pox method' in this era cannot be promoted on a large scale.

With the talent of a doctor, the fifth brother is keenly aware that he can cultivate as many seedlings as possible through the selection and breeding of shun seedlings, which can greatly reduce the mortality rate of vaccination.

The sixth child felt that this method should be feasible, but he couldn't let his dear fifth brother experiment.

First, if there is no way to do a good job of protection, the risk of infection of the fifth brother is too great.

Second, he knows the safer source of pox - cowpox, why should he let the fifth brother take a detour?

"Cowpox?" The fifth brother was shocked when he heard it. "The Great Sage of Pingtian will also have smallpox?"

"Not really." Zhu Zhen adapted the story of 'The milkmaid does not give birth to smallpox' to the story of 'The shepherd boy does not have smallpox' and told it to the fifth brother.

"When we were in Jinqiaokan, the cattle herding babies in several villages were herding cattle together." The old six evils have a precedent to say:

"I found out that they didn't have a pockmarked face, and I asked them if they didn't have smallpox? They still have some secret recipe. They said they didn't. The old man told them that because the pox god Niangniang's surname is Niu, as long as the cow herder takes care of his cow, he will not have pox. ”

"It was made up by the old man to coax the child to herd the cattle well." The sixth child came to a rough conclusion:

"Based on my years of experience in herding cattle, I have found that cattle can also produce smallpox, and they can also be transmitted to people through cattle. However, cowpox is not the same as human pox, and people will only feel slightly unwell when they get it, and they can be cured without any sequelae. But you can never get smallpox again for the rest of your life. ”

"Is there really such a god?" Fifth Brother was incredulous.

"Did I lie to you?" The sixth asked rhetorically.

The fifth brother shook his head into a rattle......

~~

It's been two years since the two last spoke about it.

Unexpectedly, the fifth brother was silent, and he had already done it!

The sixth brother repeatedly looked at the chrysanthemum on the fifth brother's shoulder, almost the same as he remembered.

He asked excitedly, "Tell me, how did you do it?" ”

"First of all, I personally visited more than a dozen prefectures and dozens of counties in Zhili, and summoned all the local cattle herders to the county government and asked them if any shepherd children had smallpox. It turned out to be exactly as you said......"

Speaking of his career in the past few years, the fifth brother has become radiant, and the whole person is shining. "In fact, not only shepherd boys, but also the entire countryside, there are fewer smallpox than in the city, and most of them are in large households.

"The old people said that ten years ago, there was not such a big difference, at that time, the disease was treated equally, regardless of whether you were rich or poor in urban and rural areas, you had to get what you deserved." King Zhou said in a deep voice:

"The biggest change in the past ten years is that in order to reward the dragons of the Nanzhi provinces, every farmer has given them cattle. The baby of the small farmer and small household, the whole family revolves around the cow all day long, and the result is less flowering. Large families and people in the city have no access to cattle, so there is no change. ”

"That's it......" The sixth child suddenly realized that the father and emperor carried out a large migration, and all the immigrants gave cattle farming, and inadvertently played a role in eliminating smallpox.

It seems that in the future, Xiongying will be less likely to take the 'Geely car' and be closer to 'Lin Berghini'.

"I also found that the shepherd boys and cattle farmers were not suffering from smallpox, but that their symptoms were very mild. They just have little pustules on their bodies. This mild acne can be cured in less than half a month, and there will be no scarring. Lao Wu looked at Lao Liudao with admiration:

"I guess that's what you call smallpox, so I asked these patients to bring their cattle with them, and sure enough, they found that their cattle were also sick — on the skin that wasn't covered with cow hair, there were some ulcers and blisters and so on. So ......"

As he spoke, he grabbed the shoulders of the sixth child with both hands, and stared at him feverishly with the eyes of a Confucian scholar looking at Confucius, a military general looking at King Yue, and a beggar brother looking at Boss Zhu:

"You're a god—your guess is right, it's the cow that came out of the flower and spread it to people!"

"It's all a blind guess, the fifth brother can figure it out, it's all your credit." The sixth man said modestly: "And then? ”

"Then, as you say, I cut the shoulder with a blade and put the pus out of the sick cow." Zhu Hu patted himself on the shoulder and said.

(End of chapter)