Chapter Thirty: Now He's Famous
New book uploaded, seeking collection and recommendation Zhu Jisheng became famous, a very big name, even bigger than he had originally imagined!
Although he lost the lawsuit, a judge named James Abbott in the London Court of Common Pleas ruled on January 20, 1843 that Zhi Xi's statements about British hospitals and doctors published in newspapers were libelous.
To be fair, Justice Abbott's ruling was not unreasonable and fully complied with the legal provisions at that time. Moreover, his judgment was not a final judgment, and Zhu Zhi-shi could still appeal to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, or even take the case all the way to Queen Victoria herself.
In addition, the Royal Medical Society of England did not ask Zhusi to pay compensation or tie him to a stake for burning. They only asked him to publish an apology in the newspaper. Even after Zhusi publicly explained the principle of bacterial transmission and observation methods, these British doctors were too ashamed to come and demand the litigation costs that should have been borne by Zhusi - this is the disadvantage of being considered a gentleman, having to consider one's face in everything. So when you can't show your face, it's best not to come out. Of course, libel was also a criminal offense in England at that time, but the London police department has not yet filed a criminal lawsuit against Zhusi.
In fact, even if the London police department files a criminal lawsuit, it's not that serious. According to lawyer Jones, in the UK, even if you commit treason by attempting to assassinate the Queen, as long as you don't actually kill her, the worst punishment would be life exile to Australia (Queen Victoria was attacked once in 1840 and twice in 1842; one attacker was exiled, two were acquitted). If a scientist commits libel, at most they will be deported (historically, Marx was deported for publishing an article attacking the Prussian government in a newspaper).
So it can't be said that Zeng Jize is being persecuted now, and even more so, the British government and the Royal Medical Society cannot be compared to the Roman Catholic Church that burned Bruno. In fact, this time's incident was half caused by Zeng Jize himself trying to attract attention, and then was hyped up by Engels and the Northern Star newspaper, becoming a black material for the Chartists to smear British society. And the Royal Medical Society of Britain that got on Zeng Jize's bad side, in some sense, is actually the stepping stone for his fame, they might be the real victims.
While Koch was preparing his counterattack before the trial began, he sent several epoch-making papers to several famous scientific journals in England and France, including The Lancet, introducing the 19th-century scientific community to bacterial staining and bacterial culture methods, as well as the three pathogenic bacteria "discovered" by these two methods: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Vibrio cholerae, and Staphylococcus aureus!
These three pathogens are the notorious tuberculosis, cholera and puerperal fever of this era. Now any pathologist, microbiologist or even chemist can see the true face of these three bacteria according to the methods and steps proposed by Zhu Jishi in his paper! Of course, they can also quickly discover how rampant these three pathogens are in hospitals today.
At the same time as announcing these major discoveries, Zhu also proposed several methods for eliminating bacteria, such as flame sterilization, Zhū's disinfection method (also known as Pasteurization), boiling disinfection, high-pressure steam sterilization and intermittent heating sterilization.
There are also several methods of observing bacteria and sterilization, which are common sense for later medical masters like Zhu Jishi, but for the scientists and doctors of this era, they are great scientific discoveries that make them admire to the ground!
With these scientific discoveries and inventions, it is easy to overthrow the mediocre doctors of the British Royal Medical Society, because the pathogenic bacteria are now exposed before the eyes of medical scientists, microbiologists and chemists all over Europe. Whoever says they do not exist is equivalent to saying that he himself is a fool, and fools cannot become scientists or doctors.
However, the reaction of mainstream Western public opinion and the scientific community over the next two months still gave Zhu Jieshi a big surprise.
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"...a scene that shocked the entire civilized world appeared in the face of the so-called most civilized and advanced British Empire. A judge named James Abbott, a servant of Her Majesty the Queen, sentenced the truth of science to be libelous according to British law! At a time when the pathogenic bacteria had already been revealed by the great scientist Dr. Jenner under the microscope, the court of the British Empire declared that such things as bacteria do not exist!" - French newspaper "Le Figaro"
"...it is really almost incredible, that the scene of the trial of Giordano Bruno should be re-enacted in England in 1843! A man who may possibly be the greatest scientific mind of our age, has been convicted of libel by a jury in London, because his theories offended the Royal College of Physicians! And while all the scientific men of the world know that the theory propounded by Dr. Chas. Jay is correct, it seems to be only denied by English scientists..." — The Forum (USA)
"Today we are shocked again, but we should not be shocked, because this country has always treated laboring people and truth like this. The main reason why those aristocrats convicted Mr. Jason Zhu is probably that his article exposed the dirty environment inside those so-called 'charity hospitals' in Britain and how harmful they are to the health of laboring people who receive medical treatment there! Now the bourgeois lords are panicking and want to strangle the truth in its cradle..." - Rheinische Zeitung, German Federation
"Has the leadership of this era, the great British Empire, fallen to the point where it can no longer tolerate truth? What do they intend to tell the world with this absurd trial that is almost unbelievable? Is the dignity of the British Empire not to be violated, and even scientific truths are worthless in the face of the empire's supreme authority?" - Frankfurter Zeitung, German Federation
"Folly! Folly of the trial! Folly of the Royal Medical Society! Folly of the judges! This is our verdict on this absurd trial. Some fools, through this ridiculous and unparalleled trial, have made Britain, which has always been respected for its science, fall from its high position in the eyes of civilized nations around the world, almost to the same level as China, which was just defeated by Britain and ruled by the Tartars." — The Times (London)
Including British domestic newspapers, mainstream newspapers in Europe and the United States immediately targeted the Royal Medical Society of Britain and the London Magistrates' Court after figuring out how correct and important Zhu's discovery and theory were. Those newspapers outside of Britain also used a tone of schadenfreude to mock the Great Empire that was inexplicably deceived.
The most delighted, of course, were the French across the English Channel. Although the Napoleonic Wars had ended more than twenty years ago, the French still harbored intense resentment towards Britain. They took great pleasure in anything that made the British uncomfortable. So, on the third day after the trial ended on January 20th, French newspapers began to mock and ridicule their British neighbors with sarcastic tones.
The French scientific community also jumped out in the first time to support Zhu Zhiyi, a scientist with a conscience who was "persecuted" by the British authorities. Even several famous French universities sent invitation letters to Zhu Zhiyi, preparing to hire him as a professor of medicine. What surprised Zhu Zhiyi the most was that the French Academy of Sciences had also sent an invitation letter to Zhu Zhiyi in early February 1843, hoping he could run for membership in the academy!
On the same day that Zhu Jie Xuan received an invitation from the French Academy, Engels conducted a special interview with him as a correspondent for the German Rhine Politics, Commerce and Industry Daily. However, at this time, Zhu Jie Xuan did not know that the editor-in-chief of the Rhine Politics, Commerce and Industry Daily was Karl Marx...
