Chapter 19 Leeches
The half-elf Galandil is the most prestigious doctor in Delin Town, and he also has a lot of research on alchemy and pharmacy. From time to time, adventurers from other places come here just to visit Mr. Galandil, either to ask him to heal his injuries, or to collect rare medicinal materials during the adventure and sell them to Mr. Galandil in exchange for commission.
Mr. Galandil bought a variety of medicinal materials, and the price was also determined by the efficacy of the medicine. One of the weirdest items was leeches. A leech that met the standard could be exchanged for a copper coin from him.
Since Joan witnessed the small tree Jingmila in the woods three days ago, he gave up the idea of cutting down black oak trees and selling them to the sawmill. This made his financial pressure even greater, and he had to work part-time to raise tuition fees. After careful consideration, Joan thought it was a good choice to catch leeches for Mr. Galandil. The income may not seem high at first glance, but as long as the number of leeches caught is enough, the commission will also increase year-on-year.
The big swamp in early February has begun to show its spring color, and there are countless leeches in the rotting mud. It stands to reason that this should be a good business that people are rushing to do, but things are not that simple.
Mr. Galandil has the rigorous personality of the elves who pursue perfection in everything, and requires the captured leeches to remain alive and free from any damage. Slippery leeches are inherently difficult to catch, and the catcher will be stung and suck blood if they are not careful. , coupled with the fact that the swamp is very dangerous, few people are willing to take on such a drudgery.
Joan was also hesitant to accept the job at first, and what made him even more puzzled was what was the use of Mr. Galandil collecting so many leeches. It wasn't until this morning that he consulted Mr. Galandil that Joan learned that leeches, which are soft, slimy, and hideous blood-sucking insects, actually have high medical value.
In the era that Joan lived in, medicine and theology were almost inseparable, and priests who were good at divine arts could use magic to directly heal patients. However, the clergy were, after all, a minority of elites in the church, and rarely settled in a remote rural town like Delin Town. Those who were sick could only turn to local doctors for help. Ordinary doctors do not have the ability to cast spells. They mainly rely on various herbal medicines and surgical techniques to relieve the pain of patients. The level of medical skills varies from person to person, but in general there is a lot of superstition. Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether the patient is cured or rely on One's own immunity overcomes the pain and restores health, and the herbs and treatments provided by the doctor may just play some psychological comfort.
Taking Joan's hometown of Alfheim as an example, the most popular and systematic medical theory since this century is none other than "bloodletting therapy". This medical theory holds that the main reason why the human body suffers from illness is that the blood in the body is infected with a virus. If you want to recover as soon as possible, it is necessary to bleed the patient.
Bloodletting surgery uses a wide variety of tools. Daggers or knives are used roughly, and steel needles are used more carefully. The more cautious doctors will disinfect the knives with spirits before bloodletting, or roast them on the fire. The bold and unrestrained style Doctors even skip these procedures, and some so-called doctors even work part-time as barbers. They were cutting and shaving people just now, and when they turned around, they picked up the razor and let the patient bleed.
People with a little culture would suspect that such nonsense treatment methods are unreliable. When Joan first heard about "bloodletting therapy", she didn't take it seriously, but the cases she had heard and seen over the years showed that this seemingly barbaric treatment method was not completely superstitious or nonsense. There are all kinds of diseases, but it does have a significant effect on certain symptoms, otherwise it would not have been used for many years and still be regarded as a classic by the medical community.
Mr. Kelandil in Delin Town is also proficient in bloodletting therapy, but he is more cautious than those rough colleagues who perform bloodletting regardless of the patient's symptoms. Usually, he only does a small amount of bloodletting when the patient is in unbearable pain, and he can always receive sedation. Miracles of pain. Another feature of Galandil's bloodletting therapy is that his bloodletting tools are neither lancets nor steel needles, but clean leeches are placed directly on the patient's affected area to suck blood.
In Kelandil's view, leeches are not only a substitute for bloodletting knives, but also have many benefits that traditional bloodletting instruments do not have. First of all, it can eliminate swelling while eliminating congestion. In addition, Through years of medical practice, Mr. Galandil also discovered that the saliva of leeches has the miraculous effect of anesthesia on wounds.
This morning, Joan listened to Mr. Kelandil's introduction of the above-mentioned magical effects of leeches at his clinic, and felt refreshed and consistent with his own personal experience. While walking in the rice fields in summer, Qiao An was bitten by leeches more than once, but the wound did not feel so painful, but a sense of numbness. It was only after listening to Mr. Kelandil's explanation that he learned that the saliva of the leech also contains anesthetic substances, so humans and animals do not feel pain when they are bitten by it, so that they did not realize that they were bitten until the leech was full of blood and sneaked away.
Leeches have another characteristic compared with other bloodthirsty mosquitoes. If a person is bitten by a poisonous insect, the wound will often be infected by the virus, inflamed, swollen or even festered, bringing great pain to the person. Although leeches are also blood-sucking pests, they do not cause other damage besides blood-sucking, and the places where they have been bitten usually do not get inflamed and sore.
Mr. Kalandil spent many years in-depth research on this phenomenon, and initially concluded that there is a miraculous substance in the leech saliva, which can disinfect and sterilize the wound and prevent wound inflammation and festering. In order to verify his theory, Mr. Galandil has been buying a large number of leeches in recent years, using them as raw materials to extract the medicinal ingredients in their bodies. After repeated refining, he formulated two new types of medicines with leech saliva as the main component—— Anesthetics and anti-inflammatory agents. Judging from the clinical trials, the effects of the two medicines are perfect, and the purchase orders have been filled with two drawers.
Due to the good sales momentum, Mr. Galandil intends to expand the production of two self-made new drugs. It's a pity that the raw materials are rare, and the saliva secreted by leeches is so small that it takes at least a thousand leech extracts to make a bottle of potion. This makes the price of medicines extremely expensive, but the supply is still in short supply. In order to obtain a more stable supply of raw materials, on the one hand, Galandil opened a pond behind his own clinic and tried to raise medical leeches artificially. At the same time, he also posted a purchase notice on the bulletin board on the square of the town hall, at a high price of 1 copper coin for each leech. Unlimited acquisition of live leeches.
Joan has been thinking about ways to make money these days. He passed by the square of the town hall this morning, and accidentally saw the notice posted on the bulletin board. Wearing boots on rainy days, I rushed to the edge of the swamp to "get money".
Facts have proved that this money is really not so easy to pick up. There are indeed countless leeches in the mud, but most of these small molluscs are brownish yellow, like a natural protective color, and it is difficult to distinguish them when they are mixed in the mud. It is hard to find one, and when you reach out to grab it, you will find that the leeches are covered all over. Covered with a layer of slippery mucus, it is good to run away, but if you encounter a temper tantrum, you have to bite back.
Joan tried for half an hour by the swamp, his hands were covered with mud, his back ached from exhaustion, and he was bitten by mosquitoes several times, but the harvested leeches were pitiful, even if they were all brought back to the clinic alive, it would not be worth two silver coins.
"Looks like I need to change my mind."
Joan secretly made up his mind. Next, he will try to replace his own hands with the remote control "Mage's Hand" to salvage leeches from a distance.
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