The Sage of Einar

Chapter 8 - The Cost Of The Miracle

Max held Kassia's hand and stared at her as he used a small silver dagger to make a small wound on Kassia's arm.

After this Max left the dagger and the cloth with the pieces of calf meat, took a yellowish substance which he put on Kassia's wounded skin.

"You will have to have this substance for a few hours after you just need to clean the wound."

Kassia looked at the wound on her arm with curiosity "Why use silver and not iron, to make the wound."

Max's hand caressed the cold body of the silver dagger "Because silver does not allow the proliferation of bacteria, viruses or fungi ..."

Max wanted to continue but he could feel Kassia's hand clutching his arm and looking at him as if he were a curious girl, it was then that Max realized that his knowledge was way ahead of the time.

"Very well I will explain you some basic knowledge of anatomy and biology.

But remember that many of them I will not be able to demonstrate because we do not have tools so that you can see them, but maybe in some future I can show you cells and bacteria. "

On one part of the parchment Max drew a small human body and next to it an image of a vein which had some cells.

"First of all, let me tell you that our body is made up of cells, these cells divide into many types but the ones we are interested in are cells called red blood cells and white blood cells.

These two cells run through our veins, the red blood cells are in charge of transporting oxygen and nutrients to the body. "

Kassia opened her eyes in surprise "So this explains the functioning of the physical pneuma but what oxygen is and how it differs from air."

Max scratched his chin "The air that we breathe contains different compounds among which is a gas called oxygen, we cannot breathe pure oxygen as it would be harmful to our health.

But remember this cycle, we breathe air, this air inside our body is absorbed in the lungs, the oxygen that is obtained from the lungs is carried by the red blood cells to all parts of the body.

Kassia watched as Max pointed to one of the spheres in the vein papyrus drawing "All cells in our body use this oxygen to obtain their food and in the process they expel carbon dioxide or CO2.

This compound comes out when we exhale, as additional data, the CO2 is used by plants to make their food and in return they produce oxygen, however we will have a lot of time for me to teach you these things in more detail.

Now I will show you what the culprits that make us sick or kill us look like. "

On the papyrus Max drew three figures, the first was a kind of elongated circle that had a tail and many hairs around it, the second was a circle with many spikes and the third was a circle but with many points inside.

"I will explain to you in a general way what each one of them is so that you can have an idea of ??the small world that surrounds us." Max said as he pointed to the first image.

"Broadly speaking, this elongated circular thing is called bacteria, there are good and bad, inside our body in the stomach we have benign bacteria that help us digest food.

Examples of bad bacteria include leprosy, tuberculosis, and cholera. "

Max became serious and opened his arms "Bacteria, whether we like it or not, are found in the air, water and anywhere life develops."

After saying this, Max's face darkened and he sat in his chair. "Unfortunately at this time and maybe even in the years to come we will not be able to fight bacteria, so the best way to avoid deaths is to follow basic rules.

Boil water, bathe, use soap, wash clothes, bury the dead, and do not eat rotten meat or food.

There are more basic steps but if we want them to be followed to the letter by all we must make them something sacred. "

Kassia frowned and looked at the wound on her arm "Wait, what do you mean we can only fight them in the future, which is soap and which is cowpox."

Max just sighed "In the future I will try to create homemade penicillin, luckily for me my daughter and I did a bit of a home experiment some time ago.

Unfortunately I am not a chemist or a doctor so I can only make very little at best. "

On the parchment Max pointed out one of the diagrams he had previously drawn "Soap is a cleaning material, I know two ways to do it but because I don't know how to make caustic soda so we can only use ash soap.

It is not as good as animal fat soap but it will help us clean our clothes and our bodies.

As for your last question. "

Max placed some of the yellowish substance on the silver dagger and placed his finger on the second drawing "Viruses can be our worst enemy, I just want to tell you that in a span of only 75 years more than 300 million people died in the future due to the smallpox virus.

Viruses are also special, they are neither alive nor dead, they work in the following way, they enter your body and attack red cells, into which they inject a substance called genetic material.

It works as if it were an order to enslave the cell, which begins to produce another virus. "

Kassia looked at the yellow substance on her arm and on the knife which made her feel regretful, Max giggled a little at the sight of Kassia's face.

"You don't have to worry about anything Kassia, viruses, bacteria or fungi all have weaknesses.

Remember that I told you about white blood cells, well those small cells work in our body to eliminate anything dangerous from the body.

An example of them working would be when you have a wound and pus comes out, the pus is composed of waste and white blood cells, of course, if a wound with pus is not treated, it can become infected and cause disastrous consequences. "

Max looked at the yellowish substance on the dagger. "The cowpox virus is not deadly like smallpox, so you will only be in bed for a few days or maybe weeks.

During that time your body will adapt to the virus and your white blood cells will develop a way to treat smallpox, so you will be immune to the disease. "

Max's hand moved and he tossed the yellowish substance into the fire. "But remember Kassia.

Immunity to smallpox does not mean that you are immune to other diseases, people who suffer from smallpox will have weak bodies so they can be the perfect place to grow bacteria or other viruses.

So if you treat people with smallpox, you could get another disease if you're not careful. "

Max's words made Kassia reformulate the way she saw the world, her worries went from discovering something new to how to fight bacteria, viruses and as she thought about that she realized that Max had not explained the last image.

Max realized that Kassia's gaze was on the last image he had drawn, so he got up from his chair and walked over to the shelf of Kassia's jars and took a small ceramic jar from which he pulled out a dried mushroom.

"Fungi can not only be born in nature, they can also infect the outside of the body, such as the skin or nails.

The image you draw represents a spore, spores are the way in which a fungus can reproduce, at the body level they are not a very serious threat but they can cause problems to the body if they are not treated.

As for how to cure fungal diseases. "

Max's hand returned the mushroom to the jar and shook his head "I have no idea, I can only tell you that if you have hygiene you can avoid diseases related to mushrooms."

The moment Max finished speaking, the noise from the door began to be heard.