The Empire Trilogy - J. G. Farrell [358]
“Irrelevant!” muttered Dr Dunstaple loudly but McNab paid no attention and continued calmly.
“The symptoms which follow this affection of the alimentary canal are exactly what one would expect. If you analyse the blood of someone with cholera you’ll find that the watery fluid effused into the stomach and bowels isn’t replaced by absorption. The experiments of Dr O’Shaughnessy and others during the cholera of 1831–2 show that the amount of water in the blood was very much diminished in proportion to the solid constituents, as also were the salts...Well, the basis of my treatment of cholera is quite simply to try to restore the fluid and salts which have been lost from the blood, by injecting solutions of carbonate of soda or phosphate of soda into the blood vessels. Does that sound unreasonable? I don’t believe so. At the same time I try to combat the morbid action by using antiseptic agents such as sulphur, hyposulphite of soda, creosote or camphor at the seat of the disease...that’s to say, in the alimentary canal...”
“How eminently full of reason!” thought the Magistrate. “It will be too much for them, the dolts!”
“It’s often been regretted by physicians that calomel and other medicines aren’t absorbed in cholera...but this regret is needless, in my opinion, as they don’t need to be absorbed. If calomel is given in cholera it should obviously not be in pills, as Dr Dunstaple suggests, but as a powder for the sake of better diffusion.”
To say that the audience had found Dr McNab’s discourse dull would not be entirely accurate; they had found it soothing, certainly, and perhaps monotonous. Many of those present had found it hard to pick up the thread of what he was saying and instead had thought with a shiver: “Needles driven into your belly! Good heavens!” But Dr McNab had at least one attentive listener and that was Dr Dunstaple.
“Dr McNab has omitted to mention certain post mortem appearances which refute his view of cholera and support mine,” cried Dr Dunstaple waving his arms violently in his excitement and making thrusting gestures as if about to spear a particularly fine pig. “He hasn’t mentioned the distended state of the pulmonary arteries and the right cavities of the heart. Nor has he mentioned the breathlessness suffered by the patient after he has inhaled the cholera poison!”
Dr McNab shrugged negligently and said: “These symptoms are obviously the result of the diminished volume of the blood...Its thickened and tarry condition impedes its passage through the pulmonary capillaries and the pulmonary circulation in general. This is also the cause of the coldness found in cholera.”
“Pure reason!” barked the Magistrate, unable to contain himself a moment longer.
“Nonsense!” roared Dr Dunstaple and started forward as if he meant to make a physical assault on Dr McNab. He was halted in his tracks, however, by a shout from the Padre.
“Gentlemen! Remember that you are in the presence of the altar. I must ask you to stop this quarrelling instantly, or to continue it in another place.” Furious, Dr Dunstaple now seemed on the point of turning on the Padre and mowing the wiry cleric down with his fists, but by this time Louise and Mrs Dunstaple had hastened to his side and now they dragged him away, hushing him desperately.
26
It was only to be expected that sooner or later the Collector’s sense of duty would reassert itself. Sure enough,