(The narration, once again, would like to apologize for Enjolras's context, and the fact that 'primitive' and 'civilization' and 'progress' are words he doesn't think twice about using.)
He thinks, quite suddenly, of Combeferre and Joly in the back room of the Musain one night. Gilded by stovelight, in the close air of a warm room in winter. Gilded too, in memory, by affection. They were speaking of the advances of future generations, of how the future would look back at the sorrows and sufferings of France in 1830 and think its newest science poor and primitive. A joyful thought. A triumph of Progress.
A moment's recollection only. It doesn't make him hesitate more than he was already doing to collect his thoughts. The best tribute and gift he can give them is the work he's doing right now.
"As I said, we didn't know the causes of disease. There were many theories. Miasmas, imbalance of the humors, physical contact, magnetic fluids. I don't know them all." Nor does he really know which of them are ruled out by this 'germ theory' and which of them are simply a part of it; perhaps there are miasmas of germs, perhaps tiny organisms in the body alter the balance of humors. He'll do his best to summarize, and let Dr. Tam sort it out.
"To combat disease -- to fight fever or infection from a wound -- again, many approaches. Some well-established, many experimental. Bleeding, purgatives, broth or rich food, tinctures and medicines of various sorts. Laudanum. Bed rest. Many injuries there was very little to be done about."
no subject
(The narration, once again, would like to apologize for Enjolras's context, and the fact that 'primitive' and 'civilization' and 'progress' are words he doesn't think twice about using.)
He thinks, quite suddenly, of Combeferre and Joly in the back room of the Musain one night. Gilded by stovelight, in the close air of a warm room in winter. Gilded too, in memory, by affection. They were speaking of the advances of future generations, of how the future would look back at the sorrows and sufferings of France in 1830 and think its newest science poor and primitive. A joyful thought. A triumph of Progress.
A moment's recollection only. It doesn't make him hesitate more than he was already doing to collect his thoughts. The best tribute and gift he can give them is the work he's doing right now.
"As I said, we didn't know the causes of disease. There were many theories. Miasmas, imbalance of the humors, physical contact, magnetic fluids. I don't know them all." Nor does he really know which of them are ruled out by this 'germ theory' and which of them are simply a part of it; perhaps there are miasmas of germs, perhaps tiny organisms in the body alter the balance of humors. He'll do his best to summarize, and let Dr. Tam sort it out.
"To combat disease -- to fight fever or infection from a wound -- again, many approaches. Some well-established, many experimental. Bleeding, purgatives, broth or rich food, tinctures and medicines of various sorts. Laudanum. Bed rest. Many injuries there was very little to be done about."