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Episode 37. Heart-pounding (3)

****

Knock. Knock. Knock.

A careful knock.

Who is it? If it was the princess, I wouldn’t have knocked, but if it was a fellow professor, I would have knocked a little harder.

If it were Istina, she would have come in muttering. Istina doesn’t need my permission to enter the lab.

“Oh, hello. Is the professor here?”

You’re an undergraduate student!

I straightened my tie, got up from my seat, and carefully opened the door. The undergraduate student who came to see me today was-

It was Amy. From what I’ve seen so far, Oliver seems smarter, but that’s not the point. It’s about working hard.

If there are 0 participants, then it’s okay to just show up at the competition venue, right? Starting today, the winner of the undergraduate class is Amy.

“Are you here to enter graduate school?”

“Yes? Me?”

“Just sit down for now.”

“Yes.”

It’s a lukewarm reaction.

That’s too bad. Amy, if she’s not here to apply to graduate school, what’s her business?

“What brings you here?”

“Hello. I heard you’re going to do a human dissection class this time, so I came here to find out how to do the dissection.”

It’s an open secret that Academy healers practice dissection.

In the first place, couldn’t I have purchased the body as soon as I went to the execution grounds and revealed that I was a professor at the Academy’s Department of Healing?

There are social taboos, but they are also necessary. The history of human dissection itself is quite old, although people in this era do not understand what each organ does and how it is done.

“So. You want to observe the dissection?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t plan on going to graduate school?”

“I don’t know yet. Isn’t it a problem that can be decided after graduation?”

“No. Amy, look. Of course, the earlier you start preparing, the better. Your career, and graduate school pays. Even if you nail down your intention to go to graduate school, it’s much better for graduating early, right?”

“That, that… … .”

“Speak comfortably.”

Amy muttered something quietly.

“If it’s so good, why doesn’t anyone do it?”

A single move. Checkmate. Right on target.

This guy is so quick-witted. That’s why I hate quick-witted undergraduates.

“I don’t know either. Maybe they met the wrong professor, or they don’t have a passion for learning, or they lack intelligence?”

“Uh… ….”

Amy took a slight step back.

“Anyway, come to the underground dungeon tomorrow at midnight. You can bring up to two students. Paper, pen, mask, and gloves are required.”

“Okay.”

Unfortunately, recruiting graduate students was a failure again today.

Amy left my lab. I looked at the back of Amy’s head. Still, I had to prepare for the anatomy lesson that was originally planned.

****

And then, it was midnight. Istina, Amy, and Oliver were standing in front of the underground dungeon.

“Oh, everyone’s here.”

“Hello.”

“Hello, this is Oliver.”

“This is Amy.”

A murmur of greetings.

The presence of microvessels must be demonstrated.

This is my goal for today.

We will identify the location of the great vessels in the cadaver, see the difference between arteries and veins, and cut out liver tissue to examine under a microscope.

It’s a bit unfortunate that there’s no blackboard.

The underground dungeon was cold. That was fortunate, because if it had been just a little warmer, the corpse might have deteriorated.

We put on our gear one by one.

Apron, gloves, plague doctor mask, black gown.

“Then, let’s start the dissection.”

“Who is that?”

“I don’t know. I came from the execution ground.”

I don’t know. I think we had a similar conversation last time, but I have no way of knowing. After he died, I just received his body from the execution ground.

“Today’s plan. We will cut out the patient’s heart and observe it, identify the location of the great vessels, and prove that blood circulates.”

Amy immediately frowned.

“Is your blood circulating?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, but arteries and veins aren’t connected to each other, right? How do they circulate?”

That’s a good question. We’ll have to look into it from now on.

“You have to open it first.”

“How do I open it?”

With scissors.

I opened the rib cage and started cutting the ribs one by one with iron scissors. This time, the condition of the body seemed better than last time.

“Amy. What does the heart do?”

“Send blood to the whole body.”

Up to this point, it’s correct.

“That’s right. That’s true, but then do you know where the blood that goes into the heart is made?”

“Aren’t you going to make it simple?”

Half true, half false. The adult liver makes only some of the components of blood. Blood that leaves the arteries returns to the heart through the veins.

Here’s the thing. People in the old days weren’t stupid. It’s not completely wrong to say that all veins pass through the liver.

The veins of the digestive tract send nutrient-rich blood to the heart via the portal vein. It’s a half-true statement, so it’s hard to refute, but um.

“To conclude, the heart beats and sends blood throughout the body. After the blood circulates throughout the body, it returns to the veins.”

“But there is no evidence that veins and arteries are connected. Even if there is a connection, shouldn’t we consider them separate?”

“Well, let’s see first.”

It was easy because I had done it once before.

I cut out my heart and gave it to Oliver.

Oh, unfortunately, to properly view the aorta, we have to take out all the other organs. I started cutting out the organs one by one.

Istina intervened.

“Just take it out. There’s nothing I can do.”

“Yes.”

A lot of time passed like that.

“Look. There’s the aortic arch above the heart, and the thoracic and abdominal aortas come up below it, right?”

“I can’t see it very well.”

“Put your hand in and feel it. Yeah, that’s the aorta.”

Oliver frowned, but did as he was told.

“That’s the aorta. You know that every artery has a pair of veins, right? This is the inferior vena cava.”

“Yes.”

“Veins and arteries come from the heart. You all know this.”

Amy and Oliver nodded.

“Fill your heart with water. How much does it hold?”

I put the heart in water and squeezed it several times to remove the air and clots. The water that got into the heart came out again when I squeezed the heart.

“About this much. More than 100 milliliters. Then, the heart beats once or twice a second. That means it moves 6 liters a minute, 360 liters an hour.”

The volume of blood passing through the heart is about 6 liters per minute. Naturally, the liver cannot make this much blood.

“Ah.”

“That’s right. It’s ridiculous to say that the liver makes 6 liters of blood per minute. In the first place, the amount of substances entering the liver is less than 6 liters per second.”

“That’s right… … ?”

“The volume of the liver itself is less than 2 liters. It is impossible for the liver, or any other organ in the human body, to produce that much blood.”

I gave Istina the liver from the cadaver that was lying next to the dissecting table. There are three blood vessels that run through the liver: the hepatic artery, the hepatic vein, and the portal vein.

Istina looked around the liver.

“See? There are three major blood vessels that travel in and out of the liver: the artery, the vein, and the portal vein, which receives nutrients from the intestines.”

Amy’s expression became complicated.

“Oh, then. Does blood just circulate throughout the body like a sewer? It’s not made, consumed, and absorbed within the body?”

“Almost so.”

It was hard to believe. After all, it’s not easy to refute conventional wisdom.

“This is so different from the original academic thinking.”

“Other people are wrong.”

This time Oliver raised his hand.

“Then shouldn’t there be a section outside the heart where the arteries and veins are connected to each other?”

“Right.”

“Professor, you know that the blood flowing through arteries and veins is different in shape, form, and nature. In any case, they seem separate.”

This is the problem. Arteries and veins are connected to each other by capillaries. Capillaries are scattered throughout the body. It is true that they are difficult to observe.

It’s not impossible, since we have a microscope.

“Give me some liver.”

I picked up the razor again and carefully cut the liver tissue thinly, just like cutting a pot. The liver tissue sample was cut so thin that light could shine through it.

“Istina. Do you have a microscope?”

“I brought it, but there’s no hair dye.”

“Istina. What are we trying to observe now?”

“Blood vessels.”

“What’s going on in your blood vessels?”

“Huh, blood?”

“What color is your blood?”

Aha. Istina muttered something softly. If the goal is to see the veins, there is no need for dye. There is already hemoglobin.

“Then… … . Let’s see.”

If you think about it logically, it’s obvious.

The liver is one of the tissues with the most capillaries. As soon as we placed the liver tissue under the microscope, we could observe the capillaries.

A form in which red blood cells are lined up and packed inside capillaries. Some capillaries have a smaller cross-section than red blood cells, so red blood cells move inside them in a crumpled state.

“That’s the essence of blood.”

“Are those round grains blood?”

“Yeah. Red blood cells.”

This will completely put to rest any thoughts of blood being wasted.

Blood is not made up of invisible substances or nutrients, but of living cells. The capillaries connect veins and arteries.

“This is another theory that will turn the academic world upside down. If everything the professor says is true.”

I think what I said is right.

Of course.

****

Amy reconsidered her evaluation of people.

Istina was much stronger than she looked. Professor Asterix was much crazier, or even weirder, than he looked.

Going to graduate school seems like it would be good for your life. You’d definitely be able to build up your achievements and skills. But why do I hate going there?