Chapter 279: Folk Remedies

The heart failure, so severe that edema was clearly visible, had improved dramatically between the two meetings, making the patient look almost like a different person.

Spontaneous recovery can be ruled out first; believing heart failure of this severity could heal itself is no better than believing in myocardial stem cells. According to Barber's account, this process seems to coincide almost entirely with the course of medication prescribed by the clinic.

Dai Wei, trying to lower his profile, could feel a sharp gaze sweeping over him, as if he were back in anatomy class, except the scalpel was not in the lecturer's hand but was thrust at him, flipping open the top of his skull to inspect the contents within.

Kraft had to admit he held an inherent, never-to-be-spoken prejudice against the internal medicine practitioners of this era.

After all, their main work was explaining unsystematic clinical experience through the primitive theory of the four elements, extracting what they considered the active ingredients of medicines by heating, water-solubility, or ashing.

Most "treatments" were hard to call beneficial to the patient, and of the portion that was probably beneficial, most remained in an uncertain state, working sometimes and not others, with limited effects.

The reason they always held a status far higher than surgery was the lack of evaluation standards, and generally, fewer patients died directly at the place of practice, making them appear relatively less terrifying.

If Dai Wei's medicine truly produced results, even in just one case and lacking evidence, it would be interesting enough. He knew of many medicines that could produce better effects, but none could be made by current manual shortcuts.

Kraft felt a sudden respect and believed it was necessary to adjust his attitude toward Dai Wei; this man might truly possess some skill.

However, there was a small problem: Mr. Barber, whose condition had improved, was very excited; the professor, seeing the patient's change, was very excited; yet the prescribing physician looked less excited, not arrogant about his achievement, merely agreeing casually throughout, appearing somewhat... guilty under Barber's praise and Kraft's gaze?

He even actively refused the suggestion of cooperative sales, leaving the financial officer who had spotted the business opportunity deeply regretful, wearing an expression of "I understand, the secret formula cannot be disclosed," and departing regretfully after quoting a number Kraft had thought Dai Wei absolutely could not refuse.

Watching the carriage leave from the street corner, Dai Wei's eyes seemed to watch a handful of gold sand delivered to his hand only to slip through his fingers; the bloodshot veins in his eyeballs seemed to glow with gold light.

"Incredible, I never expected there to be a medicine that could alleviate heart failure; even the professors over in Westminster never mentioned it to me."

"Heart failure?" Dai Wei hadn't quite grasped it yet, his heartache written on his face. "What heart failure? Mr. Barber is still quite young; his heart function should be quite good."

"..."

"Then what basis did you use to prescribe medicine for him?" For a moment, Kraft felt he couldn't catch his breath; perhaps it wasn't Barber suffering from heart failure, but him.

Out of the respect just generated, he felt he should maintain some patience; the system of the four humors theory and medicine based on anatomy were very different; perhaps Dai Wei had his own explanation.

"Mr. Barber's symptoms were caused by heart failure, most likely right-sided heart failure. Insufficient blood supply led to fatigue and shortness of breath; blood returning to the right heart could not be ejected immediately, causing the venous system to accumulate too much blood; stagnation in the digestive venous plexus led to loss of appetite; high vascular pressure causing fluid extravasation led to edema; all symptoms can be explained by a single cause."

Dai Wei spent half a minute digesting these words, seemingly touched, and asked, "But isn't the governing organ of the venous system the liver?"

"Which edition of 'Human Structure' did you study?"

"The classic version; I specifically found that old book at the time; it is said to be the closest to the original."

"Promise me, don't mention this to Valenti, okay?" Kraft sadly realized he didn't even find it surprising.

"Why?"

"For his health, and for the sake of your degree certificate; listen to me, I'm right." The discussion on the anatomical cause ended there; now he wanted to hear Dai Wei's view. "How did you consider his cause and medication? If possible, I would like to learn from you."

Seeing the other party still somewhat hesitant, and thinking of the possible value of the medicine, the professor added, "Of course, if direct exchange is inconvenient, I am also willing to make some exchanges."

"No, no, no, there is nothing difficult to exchange." Dai Wei hurriedly stated it was not that he was stingy with the formula, but that there were other reasons difficult to voice.

Kraft was willing to share the treatment for tuberculosis for free; if news spread that he had been asked for a formula and refused, that would be a path to self-destruction of his license.

"It is my honor that you are interested, it's just... this place is not suitable for talking; let's go upstairs to discuss."

Dispersing the people around, Dai Wei invited Kraft alone into the study, closed the door, sat down, and pulled out a book with a rather poor appearance from the shelf layer filled with his collected pharmacopoeias.

The atmosphere, quite secretive, made Kraft a bit more expectant about what he was about to learn.

"Here is the situation," Dai Wei began to explain awkwardly, flipping vigorously through the book whose binding was already coming apart; the handwriting inside appeared to be his own notes, with one or two sheets of different material occasionally clipped between the pages.

He quickly found what he wanted: a slightly thicker piece of leather paper, not even sheepskin, seemingly made from the skin of some small animal to make up the numbers.

"About five or six years ago, I acquired this prescription from a female... wandering doctor."

【Oh, so it was a folk expert.】

Kraft nodded in approval; at any time, many discoveries are essentially exhaustive methods, which determines that effective prescriptions may appear in the hands of any practitioner; some might silently disappear with secrecy; it is good that Dai Wei could unearth it.

"Then what is it primarily for?"

"Uh..." Dai Wei became even more embarrassed, stammering, "She said this prescription was a family heirloom, for patients who were getting older and felt unable to perform in certain aspects; it wasn't very effective, but a few cases did show results."

"You know, there will always be people with such needs, and quite a few, so some are kept behind the counter. Mr. Barber mentioned this privately to me, so I recommended it to him."

"Hmm?" It seemed different from what he imagined, but somewhere it felt strangely familiar.

Seeing the professor's expression change, Dai Wei hurriedly handed over the leather paper, hoping the other party would specifically ignore his private sale of some "indecent" medicines. "If you need it, please take it freely; I didn't spend much money buying this thing at the time."

He succeeded; Kraft quieted down the moment he saw this paper.

This homemade leather paper listed more than twenty terms, but the reading difficulty was not high; they were all common names. Even if one couldn't understand them, one could guess the general idea from the roots; it should be a combination of stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits of various plants forming this prescription.

On the ship from Rivers University to Dunling, Professor Klinsmann, specializing in pharmacy, had once explained some common herbs to him, including several from this list, but that was limited to names; matching them to the actual objects still had a certain gap.

It included warming medicines like ginger and honey, believed to promote blood circulation, along with tonifying herbs such as cinnamon, sensory-stimulating spices like pepper and cloves, and several other names he had never heard before; altogether, a medieval all-in-one tonic soup.

Whether it truly had an indescribable effect was uncertain, but anyone smelling the scent would surely feel mentally refreshed.

"Did you notice before that patients with lower limb edema showed symptom improvement after using it?"

"Sorry." Dai Wei apologized bluntly. "I don't remember; because the main use was not for treating edema, I never paid attention."

"This is exactly why I insist on you keeping medical records." Kraft sadly realized again that he was not surprised at all. "Bring all these medicines; let's find out exactly what is going on."