Chapter 36: Raijin

  In the city, setting up a stall to see patients, Zuo Gui was somewhat hesitant, still a matter of face, however, after yesterday's medical tour experience, he already had an intuitive understanding of Ling Yi, and didn't feel embarrassed anymore. The money earned was also more than just sitting in the main hall waiting. Going out to set up a stall, who knows, might be able to earn some money for the new year.

  "Alright then... let's go set up a medicine stall in Wa City."

  In the Tang Dynasty, shops could be opened on both sides of the street, but vendors without shops were only allowed to gather in fixed commodity markets. In the capital city of Chang'an, they were called East Market and West Market, while in local prefectures and counties, they were called Wa City.

  The two of them said they were going to set up a medicine stall in Wazi, so Liang Shi hurriedly borrowed a pushcart from the grocery store across the street, put a table and three chairs on it, and Xiao Shao Yang also placed the medicine box on it. Pushing the cart, he followed Xiao Gui through the streets and alleys to Wazi.

  Early in the morning, the streets of Dashicheng were still quiet, with few people around. The two men found a spot, set up their table and chairs, tied the sign to the leg of the table and stood it upright, flapping in the wind. They sat down on the chairs, waiting for patients to come and seek medical treatment.

  More and more people appeared on the streets of Wastown, various small stalls also opened one after another. People from rural areas outside the city came to buy New Year's goods and visit the market.

  Just now when choosing the land, Zuo Shaoyang deliberately chose a place close to where the firewood was carried, to see if he could catch a glimpse of that dark-skinned firewood girl. Thinking of this girl, he took out the small squirrel from his arms and looked at it, then fished out a pine nut kernel from his pocket to feed it.

  The firewood sellers are almost all from the countryside, carrying their loads into the city. They usually set out early in the morning and don't arrive until noon. Now it's still early morning, with only a few vendors setting up shop, trying to get an early start on business, but they're charging higher prices, so there aren't many customers. Zuo Shaoyang took a close look, but didn't see that dark-skinned girl among them. She must be from a more distant village, and it takes some time to carry firewood into the city.

  They had waited for a long time, but no patients came to see the doctor. Zuo Shaoyang was very bored, looking around and seeing a stall selling medicine not far away, so he said to Zuo Gui: "Dad, I'll go take a look at the medicine over there. If something happens, call me."

  "Hmm." Zuo Gui pulled his sleeves over his hands and shrunk his neck, feeling somewhat disheartened. He didn't even ask him what he was doing at the medicine stall.

  Hezhou Prefecture has jurisdiction over six counties, and the prefectural government is located in Shijing County. The city has the largest wholesale market for medicinal materials in Hezhou Prefecture, which is located in the Wasi Market in the city. This wholesale market is still relatively large, not only do the medicinal material merchants and pharmacies of the six counties of Hezhou come to purchase medicinal materials, but also many nearby counties come to buy, so business is still quite prosperous.

  The wholesale medicine market stalls are secondary, and the main ones are several large wholesalers located at the entrance of Wamarket.

  Zuo Shaoyang didn't go to the medicine material shops at the entrance, but only strolled around the wholesale stalls. There were many households in a row, and the types of medicinal materials were quite complete. He carefully looked through each one, especially paying attention to the medicinal materials that his own household didn't have, and found that all the ones his household didn't have were relatively expensive and precious medicinal materials.

  After looking through all the medicine stalls, he found that some commonly used medicines were not available on any of the stalls, such as "Red Peony", "Myrrh" and "Green Skin". Upon careful recollection, these medicinal materials should have been used as medicine only after the Song Dynasty, so they did not appear in the market.

  He carefully recorded all the commonly used medicines that did not appear in the Tang Dynasty, because many prescriptions would use these medicines, and he had to find a way to get these medicinal materials, otherwise some of the later generations' new medicines would not be available. The loss would be great.

  He wrote down all these medicinal materials and then returned to Old Man Zuo Gui's stall, still without a single customer.

  It was almost noon when the first customer finally arrived after waiting for more than half a day.

  This customer is the child of a vegetable-selling woman across the street, who followed her mother to sell vegetables in the city. Originally sitting across from them quietly without any issues, after not too long, she said her stomach hurts, went to the bathroom once and came back still with stomach pain, with cold sweat dripping from her forehead. The vegetable-selling farmer's wife was anxious, hastily asked someone beside her to watch the stall, and pulled the child over to find Left Guī and others to diagnose the illness.

  Zuo Gui let the child sit down and asked: "Did you eat something unclean before?"

  The peasant woman helped to say: "I haven't eaten anything, I got up early and haven't had lunch yet. I was thinking of selling the vegetables and buying some things for the New Year before going back to eat lunch."

  Left Guizhi looked at the child's pale and thin face, his little belly bulging, and thought it was probably ascariasis. He asked again: "Has the child taken medicine to get rid of worms?"

  "Yes! Yesterday afternoon I found a doctor in the village to take a look, and he said there were worms. He prescribed some medicine, and last night I gave him deworming medication."

  "Oh, what deworming medicine did you take?"

  "I don't know either, it was the village doctor who prescribed the medicine, they're medicinal pills. Look, I still have a few left." The peasant woman said, taking out two pill-sized medicinal balls from her bosom and handing them to Zuo Gui, "It's these."

  Zuo Gui took a look at it, licked his lips and spat out some saliva, saying: "This is Lei Wan, an insecticide. How much did you give the child to eat?"

  "The doctor said three times a day, three pills each time."

  "How many pills did you give the child?"

  "Uh, five pills. The child always has stomach pain, the doctor said there are worms in his belly, and he needs to take deworming medicine. I'm afraid it won't work, so I gave him two more pills."

  "Raijin is poisonous, kids can't eat too much of it!"

  The peasant woman was startled: "What? It's poisonous? The doctor didn't say that!"

  "It is toxic, Shennong Ben Cao Jing wrote it clearly, this medicine is toxic and cannot be taken in large quantities."

  Lei Wan is a broad-spectrum anthelmintic, which can kill intestinal parasites such as Ascaris and tapeworms. In the "Shennong Ben Cao Jing", it is noted that Lei Wan is toxic. However, modern medicine has found that Lei Wan is actually non-toxic, or at least not toxic in normal doses. The normal dose of Lei Wan powder for adults is 60g per single dose, and for children, it is 30g per single dose to achieve the effect of killing worms. Moreover, it needs to be taken three times a day. This dosage has never been reported to cause poisoning. If it were ginseng, this dosage would have produced adverse reactions long ago. Lei Wan does not, so its safe dosage far exceeds that of many Chinese medicines, making it a very safe anthelmintic.

  However, since "Shennong Ben Cao Jing" said that Lei Wan is toxic, many doctors have been using it with caution throughout history, not daring to use too much, fearing that the patient will be poisoned if used excessively. Many deworming medicines in traditional Chinese medicine do not kill intestinal parasites, but rather paralyze them, making them unable to attach to the small intestine, and then expel them from the body through intestinal peristalsis. However, Lei Wan is different, it is a real insecticide that can not only kill insects but also decompose their bodies into fragments!

  Like other Chinese medicine deworming drugs, Lei Wan has a common feature, that is, the amount of medication must reach a certain dose to produce insecticidal effect. If the amount of medication does not reach, the ascaris and tapeworms in the patient's belly that have been poisoned but not dead will struggle painfully in the patient's belly. If they are entangled and formed into a ball, it will form an intestinal obstruction caused by roundworms. If they enter the bile duct, it will cause biliary ascariasis, and may even drill through the small intestine, so this is very dangerous.

  Due to insufficient medication, the drug stimulates the worm's body, causing it to move restlessly in the intestine, which is why the child has abdominal pain. When the worms are moving, they cannot be killed, otherwise the dying worms will struggle violently inside the body, and accidents can easily occur. At this time, it is necessary to calm the worms first, and then expel them.

  That woman heard Zuo Gui say that Lei Wan was poisonous, and she was so angry that her mouth was crooked: "Ah, this heaven-killing thief, giving my son poison! This killer..."

  Zuo Gui listened to him scolding the village's Lang Zhong, and felt unhappy in his heart. He stroked his beard and said: "You can't say that. Medicine is three parts poison, many medicines are poisonous, as long as they are used properly, poisonous medicine can also become good medicine. It's just that it can't be excessive. This Lei Wan is a good medicine for children to get rid of worms, and Lang Zhong didn't use the wrong medicine. Your child has stomach pain, you should have given your child too much medicine. Can't blame others."

  Listening to Zuo Gui helping the village elder speak, the peasant woman did not dare to scold again and hurriedly begged Zuo Gui to save the child.