I Became a Plague Doctor in a Romance Fantasy Novel

Episode 69. Fleming, Alexander Fleming (4)

Episode 69. Fleming, Alexander Fleming (4)

It was a rare, sunny summer in this oceanic climate, but I’m too busy to go outside.

With this lesson, I need to show the world that there exists a substance, an antibiotic, that can kill bacteria with just a trace amount without harming humans.

For that reason. I was preparing for the class with Istina. Istina, looking quite serious, flipped through the materials we’d be using.

“It’s a bit of a shame though.”

“What is?”

“The fact that blue mold produces antimicrobial substances, it’s not something that can be deductively proven, is it? It’s not like there’s a perfectly clear logic.”

“Comparatively, yes.”

“Should we bring the petri dishes?”

“We could.”

Debating for a hundred days whether or not a black swan exists is pointless. Someone has to catch a black swan, or at least pluck a feather, for academia to acknowledge its existence.

Theoretical background for the possibility of a black swan is important, sure, but ultimately no one will believe it until it’s found.

For now, let’s just focus on voicing the idea. After all, the important thing is presenting this on a big stage outside the academy, at a conference.

And then, the next day.

Class time arrived.

Today’s class had a specific purpose. Before presenting a paper on antibiotics, it was to plant the seed that such a thing could even exist.

They say Fleming noticed that bacteria cultivated in his accidentally dripped snot died, leading him to the idea that a substance that selectively kills bacteria might exist. That’s how it looks in a modern perspective.

Tears and snot have an enzyme called lysozyme, so they have a naturally weak sterilizing effect. Basically, natural antibiotics that come from the body.

“Istina. Attendance.”

“Everyone’s here.”

“Good.”

I looked around the lecture hall. Oddballs were less prevalent today? The professors and graduate students that usually showed up every class weren’t here.

Well, whatever.

“It was recently discovered that alcohol kills bacteria, which has been a dram-”

-atic help for hospital hygiene management and infection control during surgery, hopefully. But I can’t know for sure. This time I trailed off a bit.

“It’s believed that it will be helpful.”

Anyway.

“Drinking alcohol doesn’t kill bacteria inside the body. It can even worsen the illness.”

“This has to do with concentration. Even if you drink a whole bottle of vodka, blood alcohol concentration won’t likely exceed 0.1 percent. You need at least 1 percent to kill bacteria.”

The important thing is this.

“So. Does a substance exist that can be administered to a person, yet kill bacteria?”

Of course it exists. That’s what antibiotics are. But it’s not an easy substance to find.

“Mr. Oliver. What do you think?”

“Uh, there isn’t a substance that selectively kills bacteria while leaving human tissue, but there are many things that can help restore vitality, I think.”

There are those too, I guess.

Like traditional herbal medicine, for instance. It might have an effect, but its mechanism and how it works are completely different from antibiotics. Just a different topic.

“That’s true, too. Does anyone else have any thoughts?”

I scanned the lecture hall.

“Silence, I see. What if there was a substance that didn’t harm humans at all, but could kill bacteria, even in tiny amounts?”

Even saying it, it felt a bit ridiculous.

What else would it be? It’d be good.

“To cut to the chase. My lab, a few days ago, discovered a strain of mold that produces a substance that can specifically kill bacteria.”

Oliver’s arm twitched. Like he wanted to ask, but gave up. I looked at Oliver.

“Mr. Oliver. Speak your mind.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Aren’t fungi themselves the cause of decay and disease? How would they kill bacteria?”

“Well…it’s like fighting fire with fire.”

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

“Bacteria, they end up competing with mold for a limited pool of resources. Bacteria, they reproduce faster, but mold, it counters with a more complex structure. This is one of those things.”

“A poison that selectively kills bacteria?”

“Yes.”

The lecture hall was still buzzing.

Whatever… it’s just that the research isn’t finished yet. When it’s time to present at Whitby’s conference, we’ll be discussing things like how to cultivate blue mold, not this stuff.

“Let me explain the experiment. We inoculated the center of a petri dish with mold, then grew bacteria in the same dish. And what we saw, in some dishes, was that the mold actively hindered the bacterial growth.”

This time, Istina raised her hand.

“Is there evidence that this is a substance?”

“The fungal hyphae are visible under a microscope, so it should be viewed as a substance secreted by the mold that diffuses and exerts influence.”

Istina nodded.

I thought about it a little more.

If you could watch the moment penicillin is administered under a microscope, you could see the bacteria bursting as they’re exposed to it.

It’s true, that requires extracting the penicillin. But it’s not entirely impossible. Seeing it is definitely the most solid proof.

Maybe it’s even possible to directly observe the structures that secrete penicillin. I need to think about this some more. Undeniable proof.

This time, Ann, a graduate student of Professor Kroffelter sitting in the back, raised her hand.

“You’re saying that there’s a substance that can *only* selectively kill bacteria…?”

“That’s correct.”

“Isn’t that the dream of the ‘silver bullet,’ it sounds a little too fantastical of a goal.”

That wasn’t a question.

What a snotty student.

It might be a long way to commercialization. But discovery and proof? That won’t be long.

I shook my head. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand why Anne was saying that. But she was wrong.

“That’s not right. We’ve already found it. The problem isn’t whether it exists, but whether the discovery is viable in a clinical setting.”

Whether it can actually be commercialized.

I’d pondered that myself. Can we really extract penicillin from the blue mold strain? In the next few years?

It was impossible to know.

“According to the plan, we’ll cultivate the blue mold strain in a few weeks and then try to isolate the substance. Growing it won’t be difficult.”

Chemically extracting it might be hard for a while. The lecture hall buzzed again, and Istina looked at me from the front row.

“Um, Professor.”

From the very back, a woman with violet eyes in a gray robe raised her hand. I turned my head towards the voice. Oh, it’s Violet.

“You’re attending all the classes, Ms. Violet.”

Well, Violet didn’t have work in the Imperial Palace, so being here might be more helpful. She pays more attention in class than most students.

“Professor, are you saying that you’ve already discovered a toxic substance that selectively kills bacteria but doesn’t kill people?”

That’s what she came to hear. I nodded.

“Uh, yes, that’s right.”

“Show it to me.”

“I don’t want to?”

“Just once.”

Isn’t this a bit of a crazy person’s attitude?

Come to think of it, Violet was a crazy person from the start. She wasn’t exactly sane, Violet.

I sighed.

“I’m thinking of submitting a paper to the Whitby Society.”

“Okay.”

Violet lowered her hand.

The class was over, but Violet trailed behind me as I headed towards the lab.

“Professor.”

“Yes.”

“So, I have to report to the Imperial Medical Corps. Could you show me what you’re working on? I swear I’ll just look.”

“Hmm…”

That’s it. It’s going to take 20 years to commercialize anyway, one week earlier for Violet won’t change anything. More importantly though.

“Then, get me some research funding.”

“Funding?”

“Yeah.”

Violet pondered on this for a moment.

“Understood. I’ll talk to the Imperial family next time, tell them to fund this project, that it’s a truly world-changing discovery.”

“Good…”

“So, you’ll show me then?”

I nodded.

“Follow me.”

I led Violet into the lab. In one corner, inside an incubator, the blue mold in question was growing.

I took out a petri dish.

“Look.”

“This is it?”

Violet carefully took the dish. Like the experiment we’d done last time, we had inoculated the center of the dish with the blue mold, part of an experiment to see how much the bacteria couldn’t grow.

“Ah. You’re saying that the bacteria can’t grow near the mold, right? So it’s related to a substance with sterilization properties…?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“It’s fascinating, but… Could this be used as a medicine? I don’t know if there would be any use for it.”

“We’ll find out if we research it.”

Violet nodded.

“Give me just one.”

“You know, I never saw you working when I was at the imperial palace.”

“Well… that’s because there’s no superior smarter than me at the palace right now.”

Violet is such a strange person. At first glance she seems useless, but she does well when it’s important, she’s good at handling people. Compared to her being useless, it’s hard to just hate her, she’s a difficult character.

I put a moldy piece of bread into a glass jar and handed it to Violet.

“There, right? Take it to the Imperial Medical Office.”

“Oh my. On behalf of the Imperial Government, I thank you for your hard work, Professor.”

Ugh, whatever. Violet carefully placed the problematic blue mold sample into her pocket.