episode_0142

Episode 142. The Discovery of Electricity (4)

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The Academy Cafe was peaceful. Was it because there were no people at that time of day, or was it because the princess had rented out the cafe? Both seemed possible.

Mint, perhaps because there were no people around, was closer than usual. To the point where her chest was pressed against mine. Mint pulled me closer and rubbed her face against my cheek.

“Teacher. I haven’t seen you in a while. Are you busy?”

“I saw you yesterday.”

“That was in the morning.”

“That’s true.”

Mint stopped rubbing my cheek and this time closed her eyes and kissed me. I pushed the princess’s hair back over my shoulder.

“It’s weird… … . I guess I’ll get used to it a little bit, but why do I want to hug you every time I see you?”

Mint wiped her mouth. Even though she covered her mouth for a moment, it didn’t hide her smiling expression.

I held the princess’s hand tightly.

It wasn’t for nothing that she was called the most beautiful woman in the empire. She wasn’t much different from usual, but Mint’s smiling face was so pretty that I couldn’t have imagined it if I hadn’t met her.

As always.

Mint crossed her arms and sat close to me. The faint floral scent that always surrounded Mint was enough to interrupt her thoughts.

I wrapped my arms around Mint’s waist.

Mint let out a small sigh.

“These days, when I read the newspapers, there’s nothing but stories about you. You might be more famous than me.”

“You are too kind.”

“That’s how you become a royal. Oh, of course, even if that’s not the case, the teacher is really good! But it would be nice to have my father’s approval easily… … .”

I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn’t get the words out because of Mint’s lips pressing against mine again. No, I should give you some time to speak.

It took a while for Mint to relax. I don’t know if she was tense or relaxed. She was stuck, so it felt like it was.

anyway.

Mint opened her mouth after a while.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I called you over because I had something important to do for work. I almost forgot because I was on a date.”

It was the first time I heard about it.

“Work?”

“The Imperial Family asked me to relay that news. The drug development is almost complete, and it is being sent to hospitals throughout the Empire for testing.”

Aha. It wasn’t great news, but it was good to see that everything was going according to plan.

I nodded.

The princess sat with her legs stretched out.

“Let’s go play again when winter comes… … ! A southern country is good, or the palace greenhouse is also good. I heard they grow flowers even in winter.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

Mint smiled brightly.

****

My lab’s discovery of electricity came about while we were studying how muscle and nerve signals in the human body are transmitted through electricity.

The battery came with it.

So, physiologically, it’s important to elucidate the structure and function of nerves. It would be nice to be able to find the neuromuscular junction and show it under a microscope, but I don’t know if that’s possible.

It is important to elucidate the macroscopic structure of nerves and that nerves control the body.

The way to figure this out is, of course, through dissection.

The dissection room was, as always, a little cold.

Istina and Amy were looking down at the corpse for dissection while wearing their plague doctor masks.

“Let’s get started.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know what our purpose is today?”

Amy was holding a sketchbook.

“Yes. You just need to draw the structure of the nerves, right?”

“Yeah.”

The purpose of today is to understand the structure of nerves. Before presenting the mechanism of nerve operation in a paper, we must first understand and prove the physiological function of nerves in the human body.

I looked at Amy.

“Do you know what kind of organ the nerves are?”

“I know it is an organ that comes out of the brain and controls the body. In ancient books, it is written that the brain is the vessel that holds the animal soul, and the heart holds human emotions and personality.”

I’m wrong, but I get it.

“Yeah. What do you think?”

“Uh… …. Well. Isn’t there only muscle in the heart? It seems a bit strange.”

Amy seems to be getting smarter too.

“Right.”

Aristotle argued that the brain was a heat-generating organ. He thought that the nerves collected heat and sent it to the brain, which then radiated heat.

We started preparing the body with a razor. I hoped the clots weren’t too bad, but you never know until you open it up.

“Senior, Aristotle thought that nerves collected and released heat to the brain. Of course he was wrong, but I can guess why he thought that. Do you know why?”

Istina opened her mouth after thinking about it.

“That’s it! The brain’s folded structure increases the surface area, making it a structure that is advantageous for heat exchange, and the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid, as well as blood, is thought to be a structure that manages heat like a coolant.”

“Exactly.”

It is true that cerebrospinal fluid acts as a coolant and dissipates heat, but other things are wrong.

The brain doesn’t store heat; it produces it. The brain, which makes up just 2% of the body’s weight, produces 20% of the body’s heat.

“Let’s summarize what we know. All nerves gather in the brain, nerves transmit signals, and the brain is made of nerves. The heart has very little nerve tissue.”

Istina nodded.

“Yes.”

“The heart is an organ controlled by the brain, and all nerves gather in the brain. The brain gives commands to the muscles and receives input from sensory nerves.”

With this, the preparation of the body was complete, and I began to open one side of the patient’s arm with the knife. I needed to see where the muscles were connected to the nerves.

Where are you?

“Open your arm on the other side. You will see the nerves connecting to the muscles.”

At first glance, it seems easy, but there are so many strange strings and connecting tissues inside the body that you can’t find them unless you know how to look for them.

Ah, I found it.

I grabbed the radial nerve with forceps.

“This is it. This nerve enters the muscle and connects. This is the neuromuscular junction.”

“Will this move if shocked with electricity?”

It’s an idea that was once the basis for the Frankenstein novel. It’s a good question, but no.

I shook my head.

“This person has been dead for too long. Applying electricity to his muscles won’t move them. Maybe it’ll work on someone who just died?”

“Yes.”

Still, Mary Shelley’s idea of bringing the dead back to life with electricity found some truth with the invention of the defibrillator.

It was the method that was important.

I took the surgical scissors and cut away the tissue where the neuromuscular junction was. If I was lucky, I might be able to see the structure of the neuromuscular junction under a microscope. If not… … .

If we dissect a frog or other animal, we might be able to observe the neuromuscular junction in a nearly living state using an optical microscope.

Anyway, I only opened it briefly because the arm is on the outside. The really important nerves are separate. I have to look at the nerve plexus that runs through the arms and legs, and the spinal nerves.

First, next order. The thickest nerve in the human body is the ulnar nerve, which runs through the upper leg. It is thicker than the thumb.

“Come this way.”

Finding the ulnar nerve wasn’t hard. It’s a large structure that you can see right away when you open your leg. I pulled out the ulnar nerve and showed it to you.

“Is this the nerve that controls the leg?”

“Yeah.”

I carefully cut the ulnar nerve. Under the microscope, I might see something significant. Or I might just see fibers.

“Do you know what the structure is? The nerves branch out into several strands, gather like this, and eventually connect to the spinal cord and go to the brain.”

“I understand.”

Amy and Istina drew pictures of nerves in their sketchbooks. I waited for a moment.

****

One last thing to show you.

“Let’s flip this over.”

We turned the body over, struggling. For some reason, the dead seemed heavier than the living. Still, it didn’t take long.

I pressed the corpse’s spine.

“Okay. Look.”

Finding the spinal cord can be tricky, but there is one place where it can be easily seen: if you remember the patient with meningitis.

“Amy. Do you remember where you told me to prick the patient with meningitis a few days ago to get the cerebrospinal fluid?”

“Uh, the spine near the waist.”

right.

The cutting didn’t take long.

I was able to quickly expose the corpse’s lumbar vertebrae with a knife and scissors. Opening the spinal canal required a saw, but it was done quickly.

I tore out a piece of vertebrae.

“Here it is.”

“Ah. What is this… … ?”

This is an organ called ma-mi (馬尾) in Chinese characters. It is because it looks like a horse’s tail.

Istina scratched her head.

“It looks strange.”

“Simply put. It’s the section where the spinal nerves are intertwined. That’s what looks like a horse’s tail. If you think of the human body as a machine, this is the section where the wires are a little messy.”

If you don’t know what a wire is, this might be a metaphor that you don’t really relate to. Anyway, this is what shows most clearly what a nerve is.

“Since the spinal nerves do not perform any function other than transmitting signals, there are some sections where they just float around in space.”

“That’s amazing… … .”

Istina exclaimed in surprise.

At this point, the purpose of the dissection has been sufficiently achieved. All that remains is to find the structures we need in the specimen under a microscope and present them at an academic conference.