Empire Rising: Spain

After the meeting ended, Carlo immediately went to the Madrid Royal Hospital near the Imperial Palace, where Prime Minister Prim, who was seriously injured, was being rescued.

As a hospital directly controlled and funded by the Royal Family, the Madrid Royal Hospital was the most luxurious and advanced hospital in Spain, employing renowned medical experts and pharmacologists from Europe.

Carlo paid a great deal of attention to the health of himself and his family. Every year, the funding allocated to the Madrid Royal Hospital amounted to millions of Pesseta, not only for researching various advanced medicines but also with the significant aim of exploring the development of medical instruments.

Although the Madrid Royal Hospital was not the largest hospital in Spain at present, it was undoubtedly the most powerful in terms of medical capabilities.

Apart from accommodating members of the Royal Family, the hospital typically received government officials and nobility, and it was not open to commoners.

It’s not that Carlo was unwilling for commoners to also enjoy advanced medical services, it’s just that for most commoners, a year’s income wasn’t enough to spend a day at the Royal Hospital.

In a luxurious ward of the Madrid Royal Hospital, Prime Minister Prim lay pale on the hospital bed. Fortunately, the fragments from the shell explosion had only passed through his abdomen and had not caused a fatal injury.

Moreover, with the desperate protection of his guards, Prime Minister Prim’s life was saved during the assassination, ensuring he wouldn’t die from overly severe injuries.

But unfortunately, the medical technology of this era was not so advanced. Although the timely rescue prevented Prime Minister Prim from dying from excessive blood loss, infection of the wound could threaten his life at any moment, potentially being even more severe than the wound itself.

Though Europe symbolized civilization and advancement in this era, before the 20th century, European medical technology could only be described as terrible and outdated.

So, how did European doctors treat suppuration and swelling caused by wound infection?

The most famous, of course, was the hereditary practice of bloodletting. The history of bloodletting can be traced back to the theory of humors proposed by the famous Greek physician Galen in the second century AD.

Galen claimed that there were four humors in the human body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. When the balance of humors was lost, the body would also fall ill due to the imbalance.

Of the four humors, blood was the most prone to imbalance because it was produced by the liver and generated continuously.

The theory of humors caused bloodletting therapy to prevail in Europe for over 2000 years, resulting in many European commoners and high-ranking officials dying from such therapy.

Among the notable figures were the English King Charles II, Queen Anne, and the first President of the United States, George Washington.

Although in the mid-19th century, just over 20 years ago, advances in technology led more people to question bloodletting therapy, ultimately causing it to gradually be abandoned by European doctors.

However, in the relatively backward Spain, bloodletting therapy still prevailed in some regions, and it was not in the minority.

Even in other parts of the world powers, bloodletting had not completely disappeared.

Just blame the long period of bloodletting’s prevalence. In the era where all of Europe believed in bloodletting, it was claimed that bloodletting could cure all diseases.

From colds to various plagues and diseases, European doctors generally adopted the bloodletting method, ultimately achieving quite touching results.

In its 2000 years of prevalence, the number of Europeans who died from bloodletting therapy was in the millions if not tens of millions, with numerous notable figures among them.

Apart from bloodletting therapy, there were only two other methods for treating wound infections with current European medical means.

One was to cauterize the infected area with a hot iron, but doing so would lead to a more severe infection in the cauterized area. The other was directly amputating—yes, amputation.

For wound infections, these were the only three treatments available in Europe. If praying to God could be counted, that would be the fourth method.

For treating Prime Minister Prim, the first three methods could not be used, as doing so would only hasten his death.

Upon returning to Spain, the first thing Carlo did was to ensure that the Madrid Royal Hospital changed the sheets and bedding in Prime Minister Prim’s room daily and disinfected his wounds.

How were the wounds disinfected? Of course, with high-proof liquor.

No matter how effective this method was, it was the best solution Carlo could think of at the moment. The medical technology of this era was indeed so poor that in the face of severe injuries, one couldn’t rely on medical science but rather on the intangible God and a faint desire to survive in the heart.

Whether Prime Minister Prim could survive this ordeal depended on his luck and whether the God Carlo had never seen would favor him.

The assassination of Prime Minister Prim also reminded Carlo once again that until various antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs were invented and until medical science advanced enough to ensure safety from injuries, the most important thing to do was to protect oneself and avoid accidental injuries.

Before medical science developed, in some aspects, the world was relatively fair. Whether it was a high-ranking official or someone as noble as Carlo, a top aristocrat, in the face of serious injuries, all they could do was pray to God, praying that the one treating them wasn’t an incompetent doctor.