Chapter 905 "Aspirin"

Of course, although the construction of the Cabinda Railway is difficult, it is not impossible for East Africa to complete it, because a huge amount of experience has been accumulated when building the Hessen Railway, so this tropical rainforest railway across the Congo River is quite feasible.

The only drawback is that there is no railway directly from Cabinda to Luanda. The starting point of the Western Coastal Railway is just the town of Soyo on the opposite bank of Cabinda, which is the south bank of the Congo River estuary, cutting off the direct connection between Cabinda and the southern Angolan city.

However, at present, Cabinda City does not have the confidence of Luanda City. It is a "high incense" to be able to get the Kinshasa Railway to extend to Cabinda City.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with the idea of ​​the Cabinda Municipal Government, but once the oil resources in Cabinda City are developed, Cabinda will be fully capable of becoming one of the most powerful cities in East Africa.

After all, the oil resources in Cabinda alone are equivalent to about half of the oil resources in the Far East Empire in the previous life. In addition to the location conditions of the seaport city and the policy inclination, its importance to East Africa is far greater than Luanda.

…

With the construction of the "three ministries", resources from all over East Africa will be transferred to these three regions, including new schools and hospitals.

However, the current education and medical conditions in these regions are naturally not comparable to those in the central and eastern regions. Take Cabinda as an example.

There is only one hospital in the entire city of Cabinda, and there are only more than 70 people in the entire hospital, which is equivalent to one doctor for more than 1,000 people.

However, this is much better than the overall level in the west. There is only one doctor for about 3,000 people in the entire west. Cabinda is a city, so it is considered to be in a relatively good situation. Moreover, Cabinda has a high city level, so it can be like this. If it is other backward towns, it can only be lower.

"Mr. Luo Fu, two more patients were sent here today."

Today, the city hospital sent two patients, all of whom were black. From this point of view, the black laborers in East Africa seem to be treated well. After all, medical care, as a scarce resource, can still be used on black people. In the environment of the 19th century, it is obviously a bit "wasteful".

Of course, East Africa cannot be so kind and treat them for free. In addition to being an important labor resource in East Africa, these indigenous patients are also important medical materials.

After all, the medical level and quality of doctors in the 19th century were extremely backward, and more clinical trials must be conducted to improve the quality of doctors.

Obviously, this experimental subject is not suitable for citizens of the country, but black people are different. They can boldly try prescriptions and treatments, which is one of the important reasons for the rapid development of East African medicine.

Luo Fu looked at his patients as usual, but he was not in a hurry to get started. Instead, he asked his students to take a look at the situation first: "Browns, take a look at what the situation is, and then tell me."

A slightly immature young man said after putting on gloves: "Yes, teacher."

He will come to the two blacks and start observing and asking about the symptoms. Under the rule of the original Portuguese, these blacks only know simple Portuguese or some directive German, and obviously cannot answer his professional questions.

So Browns can only confirm the symptoms by analyzing the patient's part. He first measured the body temperature, then opened the black man's mouth, observed the condition of the tongue coating, and then examined the lesions.

After observing for a few minutes, Browns said uncertainly: "Teacher, this symptom looks like some kind of inflammation. The patient's body has a high temperature, and the wound has red and swollen scars with clear boundaries... It seems that the situation has been delayed for a long time, but the specific problem is unknown."

Luo Fu nodded and said: "These are all basic. It should be some kind of skin disease. I tend to be erysipelas. After all, some previous patients have similar cases."

"Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "Willow leaves... children's erysipelas. Use one catty of willow leaves, add one bucket of water, boil and extract three liters of juice, wash the affected area. It is advisable to wash seven or eight times a day..." So willow leaves must contain some chemical components, which shows that they had a good therapeutic effect in the ancient Far East Empire, otherwise it would not be recorded in detail. Of course, it depends on whether it is suitable for the symptoms, but we don't have willow leaves here, so we can prescribe some anti-inflammatory drugs first."

Browns is naturally very familiar with the book "Compendium of Materia Medica". This is one of the must-learn books. It is included in the East African Pharmacopoeia compiled by the East African Chinese Medicine Association.

The East African Pharmacopoeia is a drug encyclopedia compiled by the East African Chinese Medicine Association based on medical masterpieces and prescriptions from all over the world, as well as local herbal varieties in East Africa.

"Erysipelas is a skin disease. Under a microscope, we can conclude that it is caused by a virus or bacteria. Willow leaves contain certain ingredients that inhibit this virus or bacteria, so our focus is to find this virus or bacteria, or even fungal ingredients."

"Medicine in all countries of the world has its merits, but only Chinese medicine is the best. Chinese medicine has rich data support and records of various diseases."

"Not to mention other things, there are thirteen versions of the Compendium of Materia Medica collected in East Africa alone, and there are even solitary copies collected by the royal family, and two versions in Japan. This means that the content of the Compendium of Materia Medica has changed a lot since it was circulated to this day. After all, medicine must be rigorous, and the slightest change may cause serious medical accidents."

"Of course, this subtle adjustment also makes sense. After all, each doctor has his own experience and knowledge, so this subtle change is likely to be a correction and improvement, and we cannot ignore it." Luo Fu talked to his students.

"Of course, I said this because I hope you can learn knowledge from ancient books in the future. This knowledge is a valuable asset after all. For example, the inhibitory effect of willow leaves on erysipelas that I mentioned just now. It is said that the National Medical Laboratory is currently extracting its components. In fact, there are similar treatment cases in ancient Egypt, so learning from the strengths of hundreds of schools is one of the important processes for the continuous progress of our medicine."

The National Medical Laboratory mentioned by Luo Fu has actually achieved a lot of success. After all, there are countless medical cases and treatment plans recorded in traditional Chinese medicine. East Africa only extracts the chemical components of the drugs on this basis.

This is equivalent to pointing out the research direction, without having to bump around like a headless fly and make breakthroughs in accidents.

There has also been considerable progress in the extraction of components in willow leaves. Maybe you don’t know much about it. In fact, salicylic acid has anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects in willow trees. However, the side effects are too great at present, so it has not been promoted yet and is being improved in the laboratory.

In the past, the most famous drug containing salicylic acid was "aspirin", which was developed by Hoffman of Germany, and Hoffman's research time was almost the same as that of East Africa.

Of course, the East African Chinese Medicine Association certainly did not know the existence of Hoffman. His research project was completely based on the direction found in the ancient medical books of the Far East Empire. Of course, if you want to extract the effective ingredients of the drugs in the ancient books, you must have a chemical basis.

Therefore, East African medicine is actively recruiting talents from all walks of life, or integrating and learning other aspects of knowledge, so as to better promote the development of East African medicine.

In this way, East African Chinese medicine will naturally be more likely to achieve results. The knowledge in the medical books of the Far East Empire alone is enough for them to study for a lifetime.

Just like the extraction of "salicylic acid", first the Chinese medicine books pointed out the direction, and then the doctors in East Africa tried to extract this ingredient through modern means. If it is successfully improved in the future, it may become an effective medicine like "aspirin".