episode_0034

Episode 34. But whose body is this (3)

****

with a splash.

The heart was successfully placed in the vial.

I don’t know how long a heart placed in alcohol will last. Should I separate out other organs and put them in? If I leave it like this, they’ll all deteriorate.

“Finish.”

Istina looked into the distance.

“This is my first time dissecting a person.”

“Really?”

“It’s not usually done like this. There are only a very small number of healers who can perform surgery, and most surgeries end in failure, so it seems like there are opinions that say, “Do we really need to open it?” ”

“There’s nothing you can’t do.”

Isn’t this a world where there is magic?

The operating room and equipment used in my previous life were very novel, but there was no magic. People still held knives and did the same things.

I think I said something similar before.

“Professor, don’t you know? There used to be a saying like that. The torso and the head will forever be unknown territory to a sensible surgeon.”

I think it’s mentioned in medical history. In the past, it was rare to survive surgery on the abdomen, chest, or head.

“It’s true that the surgery is difficult, but it’s not necessarily true. If you manage contamination well, it can survive even after entering the human body.”

“I honestly thought the patient who had his spleen removed would die. I thought he would survive even after they opened his stomach and took out one of his organs… … .”

Surgery is always like that. It’s true that the results can’t be guaranteed, but since he survived this time, that’s all that matters. Nothing else matters.

“For doctors, results are the most important thing.”

“Oh, I had another question. Is the spleen an organ that can survive even if it is removed?”

Probably. The spleen’s function is to help immune cells, filter out infectious agents from the blood, and remove old red blood cells.

Of course, we cannot ignore the role that the spleen plays in purifying the blood as it circulates, but most of the spleen’s functions can be replaced by other organs.

There is a difference in that if you remove the spleen, your immune system will be weakened. So if you remove the spleen, there are vaccinations that you must get, but I thought that was a less important story.

“You can live without it. If the spleen bursts, it is common to have the entire spleen removed.”

“I see.”

Istina reached for her notebook, then withdrew it again. There was blood on her gloves, so she shouldn’t touch anything.

It definitely looks like you’ve never done it before.

Anyway, the heart has been preserved, and we need to decide what to do with the other organs.

“Istina. What should I do with this?”

“What are you going to do with the body?”

“Considering cutting off other organs and taking them.”

This time he shook his head.

“What… … . Isn’t that a bit much? But this person is also a person, so it’s a shame to just throw away the body, so you’re just cutting it up and storing it.”

I see. I nodded.

The dead are not completely free from moral issues. This person would not have consented to having his body used for research. Istina is right.

You have to protect what you have to protect.

“Then let’s do it moderately and go.”

“What about the robe?”

“Let’s take it to the lab and clean it up.”

Because it’s not easy to deal with bloody things.

We carefully collected the body and placed it back in the shroud with a dehumidifier. We also cleaned and disposed of the instruments used for dissection.

****

It’s already dawn. We hadn’t been in the basement for long. We came out of the dungeon with our masks roughly tied around our necks.

“Oh, fuck, this is surprising.”

Be surprised.

I was wondering who was walking around at this hour of the morning, and it turned out to be just a security guard. I gave him a quick greeting.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

It was a face like I had seen a ghost. Istina hid behind me. To be exact, she hid the glass bottle that contained the human heart.

“Who are you?”

“Oh, it’s Professor Asterix.”

“There’s blood on your hands and clothes.”

“There was something like that.”

Ah. Now that I think about it, that’s true.

The security guard’s gaze at me is strange. Well, I think I would have been scared if I had met a person dressed in black from head to toe in front of an underground dungeon at two in the morning.

Wait a minute, it’s not the black clothes that are the problem. Your hands and clothes will be soaked with blood.

And it’s not just blood, it’s dried blood that’s been soaked through and turned into very unpleasant granular stains. If you pass by, you might look like a serial killer.

“You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”

“No.”

“What are you doing here?”

What should I say so that nothing goes wrong?

If I say, “I was just cutting up a corpse I bought at the execution grounds,” will I get arrested? It’s probably not something I can brag about.

I decided to just gloss over it.

“Oh, it’s an experiment.”

“What kind of experiment is this… … .”

“It’s not that great.”

The body was wrapped in a shroud and locked in a cabinet with salt. It doesn’t matter, right?

The suspicious gaze didn’t go away easily. I awkwardly greeted him again and quickly walked back to the lab.

“Phew, at least I’m glad I didn’t get caught bringing the heart.”

Yeah. If I had shown the heart in the bottle to the security guard earlier, he might have fainted. He looked so bewildered just by meeting us.

****

It took a long time to get the corpse smell out of the clothes. Ironically, it seemed to remove the smell better than the preserved body.

The smell of formalin is really hard to get rid of. The smell of a real corpse is even harder to get rid of.

It was nice when I opened up the corpse to do research, but when I saw blood on my clothes and the corpse smell, I don’t think I want to do it often.

I need to find someone to do the dissection lab. But more than that, I need to find a graduate student. When on earth are they coming in?

anyway.

Yesterday, Istina’s paper was published in an academic journal. With me as the corresponding author. People seemed to think it was my paper.

Another paper on the causes and countermeasures of epidemic dysentery. This paper was controversial even before it was published in the journal, that is, from the cross-validation stage.

The response after it was published in the journal was explosive. It is not that there were no folk remedies or treatments for epidemic dysentery.

This is virtually the first time that the cause has been clearly identified theoretically and a response has been implemented at the government level.

To be more precise, this may be the first time that a paper with such content has been posted.

That paper. Rumors have been circulating in academic circles for quite some time, but this time, politicians and bureaucrats are said to be particularly interested. The basis for this is-

A letter from the First Prince. The prince sends letters like this whenever he is bored, asking if Mint is doing well or if you have any plans on coming back.

This time, it was obvious that the letter had a clear agenda. The seal on the letter was not the prince’s personal seal, but simply the imperial seal.

– Your thesis has been submitted to the imperial government.

– The content is important, but the last sentence of your thesis seems to have stuck in someone’s mind. Medicine and health are tools of governance and an extension of administration, I think it was something like that.

It was a long time since the prince had sent me a letter with a relatively serious tone. He usually just scribbled and sent it, but it seemed like he had something to say.

– Isn’t that what the paper is trying to say? If the local government of Lapis had not had overcrowded slums, had proper water and sewage systems, and responded to the epidemic in a timely manner, then none of this would have happened.

– Lapis’ regency seems like a no-brainer, but that’s how it appears to politicians.

Well, what is visible to the eye? It seems that in the eyes of imperial politicians, my thesis was seen as a means to attack someone politically.

Hmm.

– Isn’t it common sense that a plague is like a natural disaster that cannot be prevented? However, if, as you say, a plague is transmitted through microscopic particles and is something that can be controlled?

It seems like the prince is troubled.

– Isn’t that control and management the responsibility of the state? We fought over this topic for a long time, but since the bureaucrats don’t have professional knowledge on this, they couldn’t come to a proper conclusion.

As expected, he’s not a prince for nothing.

Not only did I read and understand the paper, I also made detailed plans on how I could use it to my advantage.

Regardless of the outcome of this discussion, wouldn’t it be a way to show off your expertise and power by calling out to the experts on this issue?

It’s kind of funny when I think about it.

– In the near future, prepare a lecture for the Imperial officials on the new theory of the plague. If you find out anything new, shouldn’t it be reflected in Imperial policy?

Hmm. I didn’t really feel anything for the prince’s request. To be honest, he’s someone I know, and he’s someone who usually calls me a jerk, so he asked me to give a lecture…

There must be no particular sentiment. Should I ask Istina to do it? If the imperial family calls you, wouldn’t she be happy and feel honored?

I guess I’ll just have to ask Istina.

The lead author of the paper on epidemic dysentery is Istina.

Of course, if Istina were to give a lecture in front of the officials alone, she would probably be torn to pieces like a seal caught by a school of sharks that smelled blood…

Although it is a distant future, the image of Istina crying with her deer-like eyes is vivid. Maybe we should go together?