The Shadow of Great Britain-Chapter 656 - 321 Title Sir_2

"Sounds much better, at least better than cannons,"

Arthur, with his pipe in his mouth, said, "It seems like having you involved in drafting the Liverpool urban reconstruction plan was indeed a wise decision. Regardless of how the Treasury and Parliament view this document, at least you’ve gained experience from it."

Arthur and Louis were chatting when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a young Civil Servant in his twenties walking down the steps of the Lord Chancellor’s office.

It was Edwin Chadwick, private secretary to Lord Brougham, the High Chancellor.

Chadwick was about to get on his carriage when he suddenly noticed someone looking at him; he turned his head and met Arthur’s gaze.

"Inspector Hastings?"

Arthur, with a smile, raised his hand in greeting, "We meet again."

Seeing the stitches at the corner of Arthur’s eye, Chadwick felt somewhat apologetic. He turned and said, "Your business in Liverpool, it has been the talk of Whitehall. Sending you to oversee smuggling matters and cholera prevention with your life at risk, without providing sufficient manpower, was indeed an oversight on our part."

"No need for apologies."

Arthur said with a smile and a wave, "It’s not uncommon among the officers of the Royal Navy and Army to be missing an arm or a leg. Duke Wellington has lost hearing in one ear, and Admiral Nelson also lost an arm early on. I am not a soldier, but as a policeman, I have long been ready for the possibility of injury."

Though Arthur spoke in this way, Chadwick, as one of the main persons who proposed sending Arthur to Liverpool, ultimately felt a bit ashamed.

He assuredly pounded his chest, "The assassination has already happened, regretting the past won’t help now. But I assure you, we will severely punish those behind it. That scar on your face is not only yours, it belongs to us as well – the Lord Chancellor’s office, the Home Office, the Customs, and the Central Health Committee." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Arthur, seeing Chadwick’s earnestness, didn’t feel any particular emotion of gratitude.

After all, he knew the really influential people were not here.

Even though Chadwick couldn’t speak for the Lord Chancellor’s office, as a close associate of Lord Brougham, he naturally had his own value.

Arthur then said, "Edwin, I am extremely grateful for your help. But at this juncture, I believe we should prioritize cholera prevention. The documents I sent from Liverpool a while back, has Lord Brougham received them?"

"That report?" Chadwick said with a nod and a smile, "It was written in great detail, with logical arguments for the hypotheses about cholera pathogens and suggestions for new treatments. Lord Brougham, after reading it, immediately organized medical experts on the Central Health Committee to study and discuss it. It’s just..."

Arthur, anticipating this, inquired, "The medical authorities don’t approve of the saline treatment method?"

"You guessed it," Chadwick said, somewhat embarrassed. "Although they don’t approve, with Lord Brougham’s persuasion, the doctors finally reluctantly agreed to include the saline treatment in the new edition of the ’Cholera Prevention Manual.’ However, before that, they need the pioneer of this treatment to come to London to answer a few minor questions in person."

"What questions?"

Chadwick, flipping through his meeting notes, listed them, "First, why is the concentration of the saline injection 0.9%? Second, why must alcohol be applied to clean the skin before injection? Third, why must the needle and syringe be boiled for 10 minutes before use? Fourth..."

Arthur had thought that the confiscated paper by Hadcassle was enough to help explain the Committee’s questions. But listening to this, he realized that although the Committee did not challenge Hadcassle’s theory, the 21st-century common sense questions he had added were now being scrutinized one by one.

If the Committee insisted on asking Arthur why, he could only tell them, the first was taught in middle school biology class. As for the second and third, it was because the doctors he saw in the hospital always did it this way.

While these are common knowledge in the 21st century, explaining the reasoning behind them in an era where the concept of disinfection wasn’t well-understood was indeed a big problem.

From Arthur’s observations of hospitals, if it wasn’t for cholera’s arrival, and had the miasma theory and contagion theory factions not been at loggerheads over the cause, most hospitals would not even change to a clean bedsheet every day.

In normal times, whether it’s the upscale Royal hospitals or the cheap street clinics, all their operating rooms looked just as Darwin described in his "forsake medicine for priesthood"—blood and filth everywhere.

Combined with the terrifying tools like bone saws laid out on the operating tables, if you walked in there rashly, you would not be able to tell if you were in a hospital or a meat processing workshop.

What made it worse was Haidksal, due to medical ethical issues, absolutely could not be pushed into the spotlight; otherwise, the bigwigs of the Liverpool Committee would undoubtedly bring up his unauthorized autopsies.

If it came to that, then forget promoting the saline treatment method, "The Lancet" and "London Journal of Medicine" might just have to dedicate a special issue to medical ethics to put him on trial.