Chapter 13

New book uploaded, seeking favorites and recommendations.

Zhu Jishi is about to die from exhaustion, really, it's because he's working himself to death to save the pregnant women of London in 1842! Uh, that sounds a bit strange, but it's the truth!

The obstetrics ward and operating room of the Omen Hospital where he now works, which serves the lower-class working people of London, are incredibly dirty! No wonder the wealthy and aristocratic women of this era choose to give birth at home in clean and tidy environments, inviting skilled obstetricians to their homes, rather than coming to this hospital that Zhu Jishi calls a "maternal execution ground" to be... executed!

Now, in order to achieve the grand goal of establishing a foothold and becoming wealthy in mid-19th century Europe, Doctor Zhu Jishi has to lead the elderly British midwife Janet Lee, and the two bourgeois young ladies, Annie Eggar and Jessica Ryan, who take turns serving as volunteer nurses in the obstetrics ward, to first thoroughly clean the dirty obstetrics ward and operating room. However, "Aunt Lee" and the two kind young ladies disappeared halfway through, leaving Zhu Jishi to grit his teeth and finish all the cleaning work alone.

"Miss Lee (a nearly forty-year-old, unmarried, very obese old maid), Miss Eggar, Miss Ryan."

Zhu Jishi, drenched in sweat, looked seriously at the three respected young ladies who had just appeared, "I know you may not have heard of the 'germ theory of disease'—I will soon prove this theory through experiments. Before that, I require you to strictly follow the hygiene and disinfection procedures I have established for the obstetrics ward and operating room. Before each surgery and delivery, you must wash your hands with a 5% bleach solution, and all surgical instruments must be sterilized by high-temperature boiling and then repeatedly wiped with iodine and alcohol for disinfection."

"Yes, sir." Aunt Lee nodded reluctantly; the Tartar's requirements clearly increased her workload.

"Sir, can your method really reduce the incidence of puerperal fever to the lowest level?" Annie Eggar, a young lady with golden hair and a charming appearance, looked at Zhu Jishi with wide eyes. Due to her work as a volunteer nurse in the hospital for several months, this young lady had developed a fear of childbirth, and consequently, a fear of marriage.

"Try it and see, won't you?" Zhu Jishi looked at the young girl, but in his mind, the image of Lady Isabella appeared. He hadn't seen this beauty for several weeks.

"I hope it works; those deceased mothers were truly pitiful." Jessica Ryan, a younger and doll-like young lady, had misty eyes. "They had high fevers, chills, and unbearable lower abdominal pain, struggling and screaming, and in the end, they left their adorable babies and tragically departed this world... What terrible demon took their lives?"

"Jessica, I will soon let you see this demon with your own eyes, I promise." Zhu Jishi smiled at the young girl, his eyes filled with confidence.

...

"Jason, do you want some morphine?"

Frank Hahn hesitated for a moment after receiving a one-pound note from Zhu Jishi and hearing his request, and asked, "What do you need the morphine for?"

"For research."

In the blink of an eye, Zhu Jishi had been working at Omen Hospital for over a month. Although he had not yet convinced the entire London medical community that he was the greatest medical genius of this era, he had already earned Frank Hahn's respect. Omen Hospital had not had a single case of puerperal fever in three weeks—three weeks before which Zhu Jishi had taken over the obstetrics department.

What was even more unbelievable to Frank Hahn was that three days ago, Zhu Jishi actually performed a cesarean section in the obstetrics operating room! After obtaining the consent of a woman in difficult labor and her husband, Zhu Jishi, like a butcher, tied the naked woman to the operating table and then tested the blood types of the woman and several others (including Dr. Hahn himself). He then drew 400 cc of plasma from himself and the woman's husband, placing it in a large glass test tube.

After completing these preparations, Zhu Jishi, in front of Hahn and two other doctors and a nurse, cut open the woman's abdomen with a scalpel, then cut into the uterus, removed the baby, and finally sewed up the uterus and abdomen, during which he also gave the woman a blood transfusion...

And the poor woman did not die! She was still lying well in the obstetrics ward of Omen Hospital!

"What kind of research?" Frank Hahn took out a pound of morphine extracted from high-quality opium produced by the East India Company, wrapped in brown paper, and handed it over, asking casually.

"Painkillers, I need a highly effective painkiller." Zhu Jishi took the opium and replied. He planned to manufacture two types of painkillers: one called "morphine hydrochloride," the most important opioid painkiller in the future. Morphine was extracted in 1806, but it did not show better efficacy than opium in use. This was because the pharmaceutical technology in Europe at the time was very backward, only able to extract alkaloids, without knowing how to further process and refine alkaloids like morphine into purer, more effective drugs.

The other painkiller Zhu Jishi wanted to manufacture was even more famous! This painkiller is scientifically called diacetylmorphine, historically known as heroin! Heroin had not yet been invented, but Zhu Jishi knew the method of extracting heroin, which was actually very simple: adding diethyl ether to morphine hydrochloride and boiling it on a stove could synthesize diacetylmorphine or heroin.

Therefore, Zhu Jishi planned to apply for patents for diacetylmorphine and morphine hydrochloride at the British Patent Office, and then, after gaining some fame, open a pharmacy—pharmacies in this era combined production, compounding, and sales of medicines. Many famous pharmaceutical companies in the future were large pharmacies in 1842. So Zhu Jishi also planned to start his wealth-building dream with a pharmacy.

Diacetylmorphine, which would become a terrifying drug over a hundred years later, was actually a very effective raw material drug! In fact, after heroin was introduced to the market by the German Bayer Company in 1898, for nearly 30 years, this drug was seen by most doctors as a high-quality, safe drug with miraculous effects. It could be used for coughs, pain relief, depression, bronchitis, asthma, and the treatment of other diseases! For a time, it was ubiquitous, with consumers ranging from infants to adults and the elderly. It was taken in powder, mixture, or suppository form, and even contained in sanitary napkins used by women!

Therefore, after understanding the attitude of European countries towards opium in this era—opium was ubiquitous in Europe, not only a necessary good medicine in hospitals and pharmacies but also a military supply for the armies of various countries! Almost all European and American armies regularly distributed opium to their soldiers!

It was truly ironic that the army of the Qing Dynasty was actually defeated by a double-barreled gun-toting, opium-smoking army! So Zhu Jishi naturally thought of extracting heroin, which is much easier to produce and has effects dozens of times stronger than opium!

He bought morphine from Frank Hahn to prepare the important raw material, morphine hydrochloride, for the production of heroin.

The other raw material for heroin, diethyl ether, was even easier to obtain. This chemical is a commonly used flavoring in baking, and Mrs. Durand's kitchen had it, so Zhu Jishi planned to use his day off tomorrow to extract heroin at Mrs. Durand's house on Dover Street!

Of course, contributing this miraculous drug, heroin, to the people of Europe was just part of Zhu Jishi's plan to get rich from drugs. If the market response to heroin was good, he also planned to introduce cocaine, cannabis, and ephedrine-based drugs...