Chapter 2786 The Mystery of Ergot

"Dear doctor, sincerity is a virtue, but why is your sincerity so embarrassing?!"

His Majesty the Emperor shook his head dumbfounded.

"I heard that being angry often will shorten one's life. If I die early, you will be the biggest murderer!"

"Sloppy, Your Majesty, hasty! I have read a lot of literature on the correlation between anger and human life span. If you want to talk about this, I have something to say..."

Qiao An put down the teacup, took advantage of the situation and took a tactical back, intending to give His Majesty a good science.

However, Roland didn't want to listen to his "lecture", so he changed the subject decisively.

"Dr. Vader, I have to go to the radio station to record a program later, let's talk about business first."

"Isn't 'Fireside Chat' airing tomorrow night?"

"That's why we have to record in advance, Dr. Vader, this is not the kind of live broadcast." Roland explained with a smile.

Joan suddenly nodded.

"Your Majesty, I would like to hear your opinion on the Holy Fire Syndrome."

"Dr. Vader, I don't think Holy Fire Disease is a vicious infectious disease like smallpox or plague, nor is it a supernatural phenomenon possessed by evil spirits. It may just be simple poisoning."

When Roland said this, he stopped to observe the change of Joan's expression, and then asked a question.

"You may question, is it possible for food poisoning to cover the entire Far East and affect various groups of people with different eating habits?"

"Yes!" Without waiting for His Majesty to ask and answer, Qiao An answered decisively, "If the food that the general public eats every day is contaminated by the same strong seasonal toxin, then there will be a large number of poisoning cases in a short period of time. It's not impossible either!"

"That's right, that's what I meant." His Majesty's smile became a little stiff, "Then which food do you think is most likely to meet the above conditions?"

"Of course it's grain!" Joan replied straightforwardly, "Whether it's southerners or northerners, residents of the old world or colonists of the new world, bread is indispensable on the table of every household, so once the flour is contaminated, widespread poisoning will occur symptom."

"Damn! You understand this, you understand that, you understand everything, so what else can I say? This is really annoying, Dr. Vader!"

His Majesty the Emperor tried to pretend to be a big X many times, but Qiao An ruthlessly interrupted the rhythm of the "singing", and suddenly felt a tightness in his chest, as uncomfortable as having a heart attack.

"Your Majesty, did I say something wrong?" Joan was at a loss.

"That's not..."

"Since I'm right, why are you upset?"

"..."

"It seems that your majesty may be the problem." Joan looked at the emperor sympathetically, and persuaded him with a "friend" mentality, "how about...you should reflect on yourself?"

"Forget it! Talking to someone like you, you shouldn't go around in circles at all!"

Roland shrugged and smiled bitterly. He opened the desk drawer resentfully and took out two glass trays.

Joan leaned over to take a look, and found brown biscuits the size of several coins in one tray, and purple-red horn-shaped particles about half an inch long in the other tray, which were the product of fungus infection of grains, and also It is commonly known as "ergot".

"Dr. Vida, these two things are the evidence collected during the investigation of the 'witchcraft case' in Huyang Village, the small biscuits baked by the defendant Tituba, and the sacrifice that the dwarf women swallowed on the day of the festival, that is, ergot , there is a subtle connection between the two."

Joan nodded knowingly, and cast the 0-ring spell "Detect Toxicity" on the small biscuits and ergot in the tray, but no abnormal reaction was detected.

This is not surprising. In fact, the fungus "ergot" is not a poison in the typical sense, just like long-term smoking and drinking are harmful to the human body, but most people do not regard tobacco and alcohol as poisons.

This kind of substance has complex ingredients, both poisonous and medicinal substances, and the magic-level drug testing method may not be effective. Joan has already verified this point yesterday.

Saguna, the resident pastor of Huyang Village, also cast a spell to detect the leftover biscuits and ergot on the dining table on the night of an unannounced visit to the Tituba wooden house, but because he failed to detect the toxin, he took a piece of it lightly He ate the small biscuits baked with ergot-laced flour, but was unfortunately infected. Soon after returning home, he had a toxic attack and hallucinated in a coma.

Saguna didn't understand why he had these abnormal symptoms at the time. Later, the outbreak of holy fire disease in the local area made him suspect that the dwarf witch Tituba was playing tricks, but he didn't realize that the flour was actually polluted and poisoned the eaters. He relied too much on his divine magic, thinking that if the toxin could not be detected by the spell, it was really non-toxic, and made a preconceived mistake.

For spells such as detecting toxins and germs, Joan can responsibly say that one is counted as the other. There is no 100% reliable, but only in line with the confidence level in the statistical sense, and occasionally misjudgments and omissions are inevitable.

Ergot is a "fish that slipped through the net", but it just happens that this fish that slipped through the net is related to the staple food on the dining table of thousands of households, and has extensive implications and serious harm.

Joan had lunch with Kandy yesterday, and they went shopping together in the market, focusing on visiting the grain store and bakery, collecting some ergot samples as they wished, and doing some research along the way.

According to the survey feedback, grain store employees and bakers who believe that ergot is inedible and harmful to health account for only 70% of the total number of respondents.

Another 30% of the respondents believe that ergot tastes bitter and affects the taste of flour. It is best to remove it, but even if it is not removed, it is not harmful to health.

Practitioners in grain stores and bakeries can be said to be the most proficient group in grain and flour. Even 30% of these professionals think that ergot is not harmful. It is conceivable that ordinary people don't care much This little ergot, if swallowed by mistake, may be poisoned and suffer from the so-called "sacred fire syndrome".

"Dr. Vader, to tell you the truth, I suspect that the Holy Fire syndrome is essentially a poisoning symptom caused by eating ergot by mistake, but I only know what it is, but I don't know why. If someone asks me what is the toxicity of ergot and how to prevent ergot poisoning, I can't tell."

His Majesty the Emperor sighed, looking at Joan with anticipation.

"Tomorrow morning, I'm going to the radio station to record an episode of "Fireside Chat". The theme is the prevention and treatment of Holy Fire disease. Before that, I need to have a deeper understanding of the principle of this disease. Dr. Vader, you are an expert in the field of epidemic prevention , I would like to ask for your opinion."

"Your Majesty, you guessed right, ergot is indeed the root cause of the 'Holy Fire Syndrome'!" Joan asserted confidently.

There is another chapter to add