Chapter 49

"What are the people of this era really enduring?"

Lying on his large bed at night, John tossed and turned. Even though it had been nearly ten hours since he left, Serena's big eyes still frequently flashed in his mind.

Today's events had given him a significant psychological shock.

In his previous life, he was a general surgeon. Although he had encountered people with poor family conditions who struggled to pay medical bills, they were a very small minority and their situations were far from tragic.

In all his years of work, he had never encountered a situation like today's.

In the first ten years of his rebirth, John was always protected under his mother Elizabeth's wings. With his Western appearance, he had very few opportunities to interact with outsiders in Beijing during this era. After he moved to New York, under his grandfather's arrangements and his own carefree nature, he only interacted with people like Joshua. Therefore, seeing the desperate mother and daughter, Philip and his mother, finally touched the depths of his heart.

"Can you really do nothing?"

In a daze, John Hunter seemed to hear a faint voice deep within, questioning himself...

In his previous life, driven by the noble ideal of saving lives, John entered a prestigious medical school in the country, studied hard, and pursued a master's degree. He then found a job that was considered quite good among his classmates, and after entering the hospital, he met an alumnus director who treated him favorably in various aspects. His title was almost promoted as soon as the required years were up, and before he crossed over, he had already started preparing for his promotion to associate chief physician. One could say that from the college entrance exam to his job, John's life had been smooth sailing for over a decade.

However, after starting work, he gradually realized that the hospital was not the pure and holy place he had imagined. Doctors and nurses were not all the angels in white he had idealized.

Then, he gradually came to understand many things.

He understood why leaders in non-profit public hospitals always emphasized the benefits of departments, why people hated and resented doctors so much, and why he always had endless surgeries and rarely took a vacation, yet his income in that city was not enough to even consider buying a house.

Struggling between ideals and reality, he slowly learned to accept and compromise.

So, after being reborn, although he had hesitated and struggled, John ultimately gave up the impulse to become a doctor again. Because in this era, even in New York, London, and Paris, the environment for doctors was far worse than in the future!

Because it was 1881, the early days of modern medicine.

This was an era when the understanding of diseases was still very shallow. Bacteriology was just beginning, but most doctors had never heard of it or refused to accept it. Many doctors still regarded Hippocrates' theory of humors as the Bible of medicine, believing that illness was caused by the corruption of bodily fluids.

This was an era when people still used traditional herbs and secret remedies. There were no complex chemical or biological drugs, and even the basic antibiotics used in hospitals would not be discovered for another forty years, and their actual application would take sixty years!

This was an era without any modern diagnostic equipment. Doctors could only use simple stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers, relying on their eyes and ears, and their experience and imagination to diagnose patients.

This was an era with such backward treatment methods that it was hard for people in the future to imagine. The French imported countless leeches each year, and bloodletting, which had killed the founding father Washington, still had a wide market. All kinds of bizarre treatments emerged one after another.

More terrifyingly, this was an era of rampant infectious diseases. Even in the best sanitary conditions in the West, people could only silently endure these diseases, not knowing how to escape from these demons. For doctors, these diseases were also their nightmares. Throughout history, countless excellent doctors, some of whom left their names in medical history, died from these infectious diseases!

In this era, even the wealthiest white people had an average life expectancy of no more than fifty years. This was not because the doctors were particularly skilled, but because with economic development, people's nutritional levels improved, and their immunity increased. Large-scale public works like sewers in cities improved hygiene conditions, reducing the incidence of diseases.

Therefore, people had no reason to respect doctors who mostly struggled to make ends meet.

After all, they could not alleviate the suffering of most people, and anyone could pay a hundred dollars a year in tuition, study for a few months in a medical school with no entry standards, and then carry a small medicine box and a scalpel to operate on people.

Understanding all of this, John gave up on becoming a doctor again.

As a surgeon with some knowledge of medical history, John did not believe that he could become a Newton of the medical world by simply bringing some future knowledge and theories, as he knew that the popularization of just the sterilization theory took nearly half a century. John also did not naively think that he could invent some medical devices or drugs and dominate the global market, creating companies like Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline, as he knew that it took over a decade for X-rays to be applied clinically, and over two decades for penicillin to be mass-produced!

But...

"Is your knowledge really insignificant?"

The voice deep within him gradually grew louder, fiercely impacting John's thoughts, making him toss and turn more violently in bed.

Yes, this was a dark era before the dawn, but it was also an era full of passion and hope.

Pasteur and Koch's germ theory had already begun their journey to influence the world. Lister was vigorously promoting aseptic techniques, and Röntgen was sprinting in the research of X-rays. Countless scientists and doctors, known or unknown in modern medical history, were advancing in their respective fields, either making breakthroughs or opening doors for the entire discipline.

A door that could lead medicine into the realm of modern science!

"You can do more than they can!"

Finally, the voice in his heart grew louder and louder, eventually forming a thunderous roar that shook John awake, and he sat up in bed with a start...

...

Today, I originally planned to write three chapters, but I was too tired. I fell asleep twice while writing this much, so I decided not to force it. That's it.

Also, is this an obsession? I have to make the second volume exactly twenty chapters!

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