The study of such diseases was not very modern after the vigorous campaigns for asepsis five hundred years ago.
But still-Ole Doc looked at a stream nearby and won- dered if it had any fish in it. Hang it, this area looked like the c.u.mberland country back in his native Maryland, a long, long way and a long, long time from here. Maybe if he fished-but his dignity here, right now, would not permit that. These people expected him to do something.
Like that old woman, when he was a brand new doctor up in the c.u.mberland Gap. Her child-
Ole Doc leaped to his feet. He grabbed the kit from Hippocrates and flung out the contents on the gra.s.s. After a short s.p.a.ce of study he began to call for details and it was like a bucket brigade line the way Hippocrates was hustled back and forth by people between the Morgue and the Star.
He called for barrels. He called for wrapping paper. He played light on sc.r.a.ps of meat and he had a patient brought out from the ship and made him spit and spit again into a small cup.
The cup was treated and from the contents a drop was put in each barrel. And then the barrels were full of ingredients and being stirred under a light. And then another light, hitched to a thousand pounds of tubes and condensers, was lowered into each barrel and the mixtures left to stew.
It was crude but it was fast.
Ole Doc called for the young man-fourth officer of the Star of s.p.a.ce.
"I can catalyse the course of this disease," said Ole Doc. "I want a guinea pig."
The young man took a reef in his nerve. He stood forward.
Ole Doc made him open his mouth and poured in a dead- ly dose. Then he played a new electrode over the fourth officer. Within five minutes the first symptom of the disease had appeared. In ten, the man"s temperature was beginning to rise.
Ole Doc grabbed a needle full of the contents of the first barrel. He gave the fourth officer a non-piercing shot.
Five minutes later the temperature was down and the man was well!
Ole Doc tried an ant.i.toxin on five people and tried to give them the disease. It would not settle in them. They were immune!
"I want," said Ole Doc, "volunteers to write these instructions down, let me check what they have written and rush gallons of both these medicines to every part of this planet. You, you"re the s.p.a.ce-radio superintendent aren"t you? Take what I dictate here for warning to all systems and to provide them with the cure and preven- tion. Hippocrates, give me that mike."
Ole Doc said into the speaker, "U.M.S. to Garth. Pre- vention and cure established. Star of s.p.a.ce survivors will not be carriers. You may disperse your fleet. Your doctors will be furnished with information by the general dispatch."
He turned to a local doctor, a young man who, for some thirty-five minutes, had been standing there with his mouth open. "You see the procedure, sir. I would advise you to get in and treat the patients in that poor ship. If you need any further help, particularly with those who have become insane, I shall be at hand. I think," he added, "that there are trout in that stream."
Hippocrates carried the equipment back, an elephant load of it, and restored it to its proper places in the Morgue. Ole Doc, when he had got free of people trying to kiss his hands, push money on him and lift and carry him in triumph, climbed into the Morgue and stretched out his feet under his desk. He made a series of interesting notes.
It is sometimes unwise to remove a disease entirely from the Universe. It is almost impossible to eradicate one com- pletely from all quarters of the Universe, particularly as some are borne by animals unbeknownst to men.
The human being as a race carries a certain residual immunity to many violent diseases so that these are, in time, ineffective against a group with which they have as- sociated but, reaching a new group, pa.s.s quickly to de- structive lengths.
Diseases known to us commonly now would be fatal should we outgrow that immunity. In such a way are the penicillin-like panaceas destructive at long last
I would advise-
A deferential footfall sounded at the office doorway.
Ole Doc looked up, preoccupied, to find Galactic Admiral Garth.
"Doctor," said Garth uncomfortably, "are you busy just now? I can come back but-"
"No, no," said Ole Doc. "Come in and sit down. Have a drink?"
Garth shuffled his feet and sank gingerly into his chair.
Plainly he was a victim of awe and he had a problem.
"That was magnificent. I ... I"ve been wrong about doctors, sir. I have been very wrong about the Universal Medical Society. I said some hard words-"
"No, no," said Ole Doc. "Come, have a drink."
"Well, the fact is," said Garth, "my doctors tell me that what my admirals and myself have . . . well ... it doesn"t fit the description. I don"t mean your diagnosis is wrong-"
"Admiral," said Ole Doc, "I think I know what the trouble is." He reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a package which he gave to the admiral. "Take one every four hours. Drink lots of water. Tell your other men to do the same and keep to their quarters. Anybody else comes down, have your doctors give them this." And he wrote a quick prescription in a hand n.o.body but a pharmacist could read and gave it to Garth. Deciphered, it said "Aspirin."
"You"re sure-" And Garth blew his nose.
"Of course I"m sure!" said Ole Doc. "Now how about-"
But Garth was uncomfortable around all this greatness and he managed to get away, still giving his feeble thanks, still with awe in his eyes.
Suddenly Hippocrates appeared, an accusative gleam in his eyes, antennae waving with wrath. "What you give him? What you do with this out of place in the operating room?"
"Oh, by the way, Hippocrates," said Ole Doc, pulling
out a handkerchief and handing it gingerly over. "Boil that when you wash. It"s slightly septic."
"You did something! You gave somebody some disease!
What you doing with-"
"Hippocrates, that bottle you keep stabbing at me is just common cold virus catalysed to work in two or three hours. It"s very weak. It wouldn"t kill anyone. I merely put some on my handkerchief-"
Hippocrates suddenly stopped and grinned. "Aha! The admiral had the sniffles. Well, serve him right for kill all those innocent people. But sometime you get in trouble.
You wait." He started to march off and then, impelled by a recalled curiosity, came back.
"What was the matter with all those people?"
"Too well cared for by doctors," said Ole Doc.
"How?"
"Hit by a disease which they hadn"t contacted for a long, long time-say five hundred years."
"What disease?" demanded Hippocrates. "Not one that you spread?"
"No, no, heaven forbid!" laughed Ole Doc. "It has a perfectly good name but it hasn"t been around for so long that-"
"What name?"
"Common measles," said Ole Doc.
A Sound Investment
The self-righteous Hippocrates was just returning from a visit to the Alpheca when the first blast hit him.
It was, however, not a very serious blast. The entire force of it emanated from the larynx of Ole Doc Methuselah, Soldier of Light and member extraordinary of the Universal Medical Society.