Chapter 905 “Aspirin”
Of course, although the construction of the Cabinda Railway is difficult, it is not impossible for East Africa. Because of the huge amount of experience accumulated in the construction of the Hesse Railway, the feasibility of this tropical rainforest railway across the Congo River is quite high.
The only shortcoming is that there is no direct railway from Cabinda to Luanda. The starting point of the Western Coastal Railway is exactly the town of Soyo on the other side of Cabinda, which is on the south bank of the Congo River estuary, cutting off the direct connection between Cabinda and the cities in southern Angola.
However, at present, Cabinda does not have the same confidence as Luanda. It would be a "high priority" to win the extension of the Kinshasa railway to Cabinda.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with this idea of the Cabinda City Government, but once Cabinda's oil resources are developed, Cabinda will be fully capable of being promoted to one of the most powerful cities in East Africa.
After all, the oil resources in Cabinda are equivalent to about half of the oil resources in the previous Far Eastern Empire. Coupled with the location conditions of the seaport city and the policy tilt, its importance to East Africa is far higher than that of Luanda.
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With the construction of the "Three Ministries", East Africa's national resources will be transferred to these three regions, including of course new schools and hospitals.
However, the current educational and medical conditions in these areas cannot be compared with those in central and eastern areas. Take Cabinda City as an example.
There is only one hospital in Cabinda, and there are only 70 people in the entire hospital, which is equivalent to one doctor in more than 1,000 people.
However, this is much better than the overall level in the west. There are about 3,000 people in the entire west to have one doctor. Cabinda is a city, so the situation is relatively good, and Cabinda can only be like this if it is a high-level city. If other backward towns only Could be lower.
"Mr. Luofu, we sent two more patients today."
Two patients were sent to the city hospital today, and both of them are black. From this point of view, black workers in East Africa seem to be treated well. After all, medical care is a scarce resource and can be used on black people. In the general environment of the 19th century , obviously a bit "wasted".
Of course, East Africa cannot be so kind and treat them free of charge. 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 the quality of doctors in the 19th century were extremely backward, and if you want to improve the quality of doctors, you must conduct more clinical trials.
Obviously, this experimental subject is not suitable for citizens of this country, but black people are different. They can boldly try prescriptions and treatments. This is also one of the important reasons for the rapid development of East African medicine.
Luofu 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 the situation first, and then tell me."
A slightly immature young man said after putting on his gloves: "Yes, teacher."
He will come to two black people and start to observe and ask about symptoms. Under the original Portuguese rule, these black people can only speak simple Portuguese, or some commanding German, and are obviously unable to answer his professional questions.
Therefore, Browns could only confirm the disease through partial analysis of the patient. He first measured the 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 with some uncertainty: "Teacher, this symptom seems to be some kind of inflammation. The patient's body has a high temperature, the wound has red and swollen scars, and the boundaries are clear... It took a long time to see the situation. , but I don’t know the specific issue.”
Luofu 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 also had similar cases."
"Compendium of Materia Medica" records: 'Willow leaves... erysipelas in children. Use one pound of willow leaves, add one bucket of water, boil three liters of juice, and wash the affected area. It is advisable to wash seven or eight times a day...' So willow leaves must contain some kind of chemical The ingredients, this shows that it had very good curative effects in the ancient Far Eastern Empire, otherwise it would not be recorded in detail. Of course, it depends on whether it is symptomatic, 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". It is one of the must-read books and is included in the East African Pharmacopoeia compiled by the East African Traditional Chinese Medicine Association.
The East African Pharmacopoeia is a pharmaceutical encyclopedia compiled by the East African Traditional Chinese Medicine Association based on medical masterpieces and prescriptions from various countries around the world, as well as East Africa’s unique herbal varieties.
"Erysipelas is also a skin disease. Under a microscope, we can conclude that it is a disease caused by a virus or bacteria, and willow leaves contain a certain ingredient that has an inhibitory effect on this virus or bacteria. , so our focus is to find the components of this virus or bacteria, or even fungi.”
“Medicine from all over the world has its merits, but the only one that is most successful is traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine has rich data support and records of various diseases.”
"Not to mention other things, there are thirteen editions of the "Compendium of Materia Medica" collected in East Africa alone. There are even lone copies collected by the royal family and two editions in Japan. This means that the content of the "Compendium of Materia Medica" has changed since it has been circulated to this day. It’s very big. 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 or her own experience and knowledge, so this subtle change is likely to be a correction and improvement, and we cannot ignore it." Luofu faced His students talked eloquently.
"Of course, I say this because I hope you can learn knowledge from ancient classics in the future. This knowledge is precious wealth after all. For example, the inhibitory effect of willow leaves on erysipelas I mentioned just now is currently being extracted by the National Medical Laboratory. In fact, there are similar treatment cases in ancient Egypt, so learning from the strengths of hundreds of schools of medicine is one of the important processes in the continuous progress of our medicine.”
The national medical laboratory Luofu mentioned has actually achieved a lot of success. After all, there are countless medical cases and treatment plans recorded by traditional Chinese medicine, and East Africa only extracted the chemical components of the medicine on this basis.
This is equivalent to pointing out the direction of research, instead of running around like a headless fly and making breakthroughs by accident.
There has also been considerable progress in the extraction of components from willow leaves. Maybe you don’t know much about it. In fact, salicylic acid has anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects in willow. However, the side effects are too great at present, so it has not been promoted yet and is being improved in the laboratory. .
The most famous drug containing salicylic acid in the past life was "aspirin", which was researched by Hoffmann in Germany, and Hoffmann's research was basically at the same time as East Africa.
Of course, the East African Traditional Chinese Medicine Association certainly did not know that Hoffman existed. Its scientific research projects were completely based on the directions found in the ancient medical books of the Far Eastern Empire. Of course, if you want to extract the active ingredients of the medicines in the ancient books, you must have a chemical foundation.
Therefore, East African medicine is actively recruiting talents from all walks of life, or integrating knowledge from other aspects to better promote the development of East African medicine.
In this way, it will naturally be easier for East African Chinese medicine to produce results. The knowledge in the medical classics of the Far Eastern Empire alone is enough for them to study for a lifetime.
Just like the extraction of "salicylic acid", first the records of traditional Chinese medicine pointed the way, and then doctors in East Africa found ways to extract this ingredient through modern means. If the improvement is successful in the future, it may become an effective medicine like "aspirin".
