Chapter 315: Busy Scotland Yard (K6)
Chapter 313 – Busy Scotland Yard (4K6)
London, Westminster, 4 Whitehall Street, Greater London Police Headquarters.
Horse boots stepped on the floor, and the sound of solid, brittle footsteps resounded throughout Scotland Yard.
The hall was filled with Scotland Yard officers who came and went trotting forward, they came from different police districts all over London, facing different policing situations and regional characteristics, but the purpose of their visit to the headquarters on behalf of their local police districts today was surprisingly the same.
Not due to burglary, robbery or arson, but because of an unsuspected epidemic.
“Superintendent Matthews, St. Thomas’ and London Bridge Hospitals were suddenly declared full of beds early this morning. Because they couldn’t find beds to enter, many of the patients’ families have besieged the hospital gates in demonstration and protest. The local police station is requesting that headquarters be able to send an armed police unit to the area to assist in maintaining order.”
“Superintendent Klein, here is a special report from Hackney Police, since yesterday evening the local Homerton Hospital has suddenly received many patients with unknown causes, the local police department is extremely short of transportation to transport the patients, and they are requesting that the headquarters be able to transfer some of the police force to support Hackney.”
“Sir Mayne, a similar situation has broken out in the area of the East India Docks, where a number of sailors have suddenly fallen ill, and the Thames Water Police are currently unable to arrange for more police officers to be involved in water policing, and they have forwarded a request for assistance and support to us through the Port of London Management Board. The relevant paperwork is currently undergoing Home Office approval, details of which I have explained in the appendix to the document.”
Arthur walked briskly down the aisles of the hall, his hat clipped to his armpits and a white glove in his mouth, hastily changing as he went.
Behind him is Louis who has returned to Scotland Yard ahead of him to organize the relevant documents, he follows Arthur’s pace while unfolding the documents to report, “According to the current information returned by the police districts, there is a major outbreak of the epidemic in the East, North and South districts. All the major hospitals in London are doing their best to treat the patients, at present all the hospitals except the West End are almost at full capacity, and the hospitals in the rest of the regions are also transferring the excess patients to the West End. However, based on the current situation, it won’t take long for the beds in the West End to be filled up as well ……”
Arthur took off his white gloves and put them on his hands while walking with his head down, “Time is running out, try to pick up the highlights. Any updates from the Cabinet?”
Louis hurriedly turned over a new page, “The emergency meeting of the cabinet has just ended, and according to the Chancellor’s Office’s report, they have already launched a traceability operation for this epidemic pandemic. Currently, according to the work reports submitted by the medical officers of the various local governments, the epidemic can now be identified as the cholera that is ravaging the European continent. The source of the cholera in Britain may have come from Sunderland on the Durham coast.
Sailors in Sunderland’s harbor were the first to contract the disease a few weeks ago, but at the time local doctors in Sunderland misdiagnosed it as an endemic disease and did not take it any further. The Lord Chancellor’s Department has traced the outbreak back and found that it has now continued to spread northwards along the Tyburn River, all the way into Scotland via Northumberland, and there are now suspected cases in Haddington and East Lothian.
The Prime Minister, Earl Grey, has asked the Lord Chancellor’s Department to convene fever specialists from London’s major hospitals to discuss the next steps in the fight against the disease. The Home Office has asked Scotland Yard not to act rashly until the healthcare meeting is over and all police officers continue to maintain order on the ground in accordance with their day-to-day working charter.”
“Do not act rashly?” Arthur paused in his steps and turned his head to look at Louis, “The cholera outbreak is already very clear, does the Home Office have any hesitation now?”
Louis closed the paper and replied, “It is not the Ministry of the Interior that is hesitating, but the Chancellery has been indecisive. Currently the views of the miasmatic and contagionist factions in the committee are at odds, and many of them in both factions have experience practicing in cholera-affected areas. Therefore, the Ministry of the Interior does not dare to act rashly until it has been determined exactly which school of thought will prevail.”
After Louis said this, he handed over the document in his hand.
Arthur took a cursory glance and understood the current situation.
The so-called Miasma School, whose advocates were mostly doctors who had experience in treating cholera in colonial India or were engaged in the study of cholera reports from India, since they found that the medical staff who treated cholera patients in India seldom contracted the disease, they naturally insisted, based on their own experience, that cholera, and indeed all diseases, were not contagious, but rather, were determined by environmental factors such as the climate, the temperature, the air, and so on.
The current investigation report on cholera in India further supports their view that the outbreak areas are almost invariably in low-lying, humid, hot zones. Many doctors in Sunderland, the site of the current British cholera pandemic, hold the same view, and at a meeting this morning, a representative of the miasma school presented a report submitted by local doctor Henry Dodd.
The report claimed that the extreme unseasonal weather that preceded the cholera cases had produced and spread a local accumulation of deadly gaseous substances from certain areas, and that this was sufficient to cause an outbreak of the cholera pandemic in the local population.
While the miasmatic viewpoint and illustrations seem to be overwhelmingly correct, its opponents have produced many proofs sufficient to disprove it. One of these is the clear path of transmission of cholera.
In fact, long before the cholera pandemic broke out in Britain, the British government had taken notice of the appalling disease.
As a deadly disease that originated in the South Asian subcontinent, the British Army got an early taste of cholera’s power as early as 1817.
It coincided with the outbreak of the third Maratha War between Britain and India, and like the previous two wars, it looked as if the Army was about to win another resounding crushing victory with no foreign aid from the Indian princes.
But little did they realize that soon after the outbreak of the war, cholera struck Calcutta unnoticed, and as soldiers fell sick one after another, the Army’s fighting strength was quickly hit, and even the frontline fighting became strained.
But unfortunately, although cholera was an Indian disease, it infected regardless of nationality and apparently without much patriotism.
In this way, cholera soon extended itself from infecting the British Army to all soldiers on the battlefield.
Soon after, it followed the soldiers on both sides of the war to Nepal, Bangladesh and the Afghan border.
By the end of this cholera outbreak in 1823, it had extended itself to Muscat, Tehran and Baghdad in Central Asia.
Later, as a result of Russia’s two wars with Persia and the Ottoman Empire in 1826-1829, the cholera made its way over the Caucasus Mountains to St. Petersburg with Russian soldiers.
Although Tsar Nicholas I offered up his iron willpower, it didn’t stop the Russian cholera outbreak of 1829.
Sick Russian soldiers were soon sent to Warsaw to suppress the Polish uprising, and with the presence of Russian soldiers, the whole of Poland was quickly turned into an infected area.
And with the conquest of Poland, it pushed its way westward in the footsteps of the refugees, quickly sweeping across Europe.
Faced with death statistics in the thousands, the British government had long felt a chill down its back; after all, no one wanted another Black Death. But unfortunately, as an island nation that thrives on commerce, Britannia has not been able to escape almost every global disease pandemic.
And in an effort to stop the cholera outbreak, the British government took advantage of the current harmonious diplomatic relations between the two countries to send some of its internists to St. Petersburg to learn how to combat cholera back when the outbreak began in Russia.
And these doctors are now the mainstay of the contagion-causing theory, which is almost diametrically opposed to the testimony produced by those doctors in India.
For reasons unknown, Russian medical personnel, in contrast to the doctors in India, often suffered from cholera as a result of caring for the sick, and this became the center of the miasma and contagion wars.
They all accused each other of fabricating facts and disregarding the basic ethics of being a doctor.
It is not surprising that the Cabinet, as laymen, was uncertain in the face of this situation. Arthur finished reading the report and took a deep breath as he buttoned up his hat and said, “I see, of course we have to carry out the decision of the Ministry of the Interior, and since they said that everything will work as usual, then we’ll carry on as usual. However, according to the principle of utilitarianism, the main duties of the Police Intelligence Bureau will be temporarily changed, the murder investigation will be suspended for the time being, and all of our extra manpower will be assigned to the subordinate police districts to participate in assisting the work.
Since we can’t be sure which side is right now, let’s pay attention. Tell our officers to wear scarves to cover their mouths and noses when on duty, and not to consume local food and drinking water. All parts of London are unsafe at the moment, and at this particular time their food supplies will be the responsibility of the department. Incidentally, warn them that I have no intention of making an extra pension provision in this year’s departmental budget quota, so they can’t afford to go down before things calm down.”
“Understood, sir!”
Louis stood at attention and saluted, handed Arthur the papers clutched in his arms, and trotted off.
Arthur casually flipped through the document, and after figuring out the cause and effect, he put his white gloves on the doorknob and pushed open the door to the conference room.
When his police officer’s sword and straight standing posture appeared in everyone’s line of sight, the movements of the police superintendents who were in the conference room cursing and tapping the table while swallowing clouds suddenly stopped.
“Black …… Superintendent Hastings?”
“What brings you here?”
Arthur didn’t explain much, he just took off his hat and threw it on the table, then pulled out his chair and sat down.
In the midst of the silence, Arthur struck a match and lit his pipe and took a drag.
Behind the smoke were eyes that glowed red.
“There’s no need to be too surprised, it’s just a small injury, I can still breathe.”
Deputy Director Sir Mayne nodded slightly when he heard this, then turned his head to look at Director Rowan, who was sunk into a chair beside him, smoking.
Only to see Rowan slowly straighten his back, gently snapping his pipe into the teacup at hand, the smoke dissipated, revealing his angular face and thinning hair on his forehead.
“Arthur, I’ll spare you those courtesies. Flattery and all that is vain, I’m a real man. Scotland Yard needs you now, and I’m very glad you’ve returned in time. When this cholera is over, you can take as much time off as you want. If there’s anything to say on the Home Office side, I’ll deal with it, you don’t have to care.”
Arthur smiled and returned, “Sir, I am also a truthful person. Since you say so, let’s talk about how we should end the cholera first, shall we?”
Hearing this, Superintendent Matthews, who was at the side, boarded up his face and asked towards Director Rowan, “Sir, the word cholera has been ringing in my ears since the moment I woke up today. How exactly is this disease different from typhus and yellow fever? Is it worth all the fanfare we’re making to deal with it?”
Hearing this, Rowan suddenly threw his eyes at Arthur, “I don’t really know much about the disease side of things. To be honest, I’m also in a daze right now, and it seems like the Ministry of the Interior isn’t going to say anything to us for the time being. If any of you know anything about it, you might want to tell the group.”
Arthur stood up and opened the file in his hand, “Regarding cholera, according to the information that the Intelligence Bureau has just gotten, this is an endemic disease that originated in the South Asian subcontinent. This time the cholera was most likely imported by a merchant ship returning to Sunderland from Hamburg.
According to the description of the doctors involved: the onset of cholera is violent and incurable, and once the disease is detected, it can take as little as two or three hours or as long as two or three days to kill the patient. People who die of cholera are dehydrated, almost drained of body fluids, lose weight, lose their human form, look like skeletons, and their skin takes on a bluish-gray color. Because of its deadly appearance and rapid spread, many people have now begun to call it the Blue Death.
As we all know, cholera has been prevalent on the European continent for a while now. In fact, a year earlier, Britain had initiated measures to combat cholera. The Duke of Wellington, who had been the Governor of the Five Ports since 1829, had ordered that the strict quarantine against the importation of bubonic plague in the medieval period be restarted in the ports under his jurisdiction of Hastings, Romney, Hayes, Dover Sangwick, and Lowery and Winchelsea. All ships suspected by the quarantine authorities of being in danger of importing cholera will be isolated outside the harbor for 40 to 80 days ……”
Hearing this, Superintendent Motherwell couldn’t help but open his mouth and ask, “I’m guessing that they mostly didn’t strictly enforce it, right? After all, the people of the Five Harbors Alliance have been arrogant and domineering for hundreds of years and have become accustomed to it, and even though this is no longer the Middle Ages when they were in their prime, that arrogance is not something that can be compared to ordinary places.”
Superintendent Mosley on the side also spun his pen and concurred, “After all, other than them, I can’t think of any other place where sailors would be able to do something like ransacking a city in their own country. Back in the day, their fleet was under the separate banner of the ‘Cinque Ports Royal Navy’ and was completely out of the command of the Admiral.”
Director Rowan raised his hand to signal them to stop and spoke at Arthur, “Back to the cholera.”
Arthur picked up, “Although the news of the discovery of the cholera was only announced today, according to the feedback from all over the world, it should have entered Britain for several weeks already. London was not its first stop, nor will it be its last. And based on the experiences in India, Russia, and other places, this cholera epidemic is likely to last up to a year.”
“This ……”
“A year?”
After listening to Arthur’s description, the superintendents only felt itchy all over their bodies, as if they were about to suffer from cholera.
As for a portion of the grumpy superintendents, they couldn’t help but tap their pipes on the desktop: “If the situation is so serious, why hasn’t the Ministry of the Interior issued an order yet? According to the old practice, we should blockade the infected area and burn the corpses as soon as possible. By the way, Superintendent Hastings, have you figured out what spread this cholera? Do we need to catch some more street rats or something?”
Arthur unfolded the file and laid it out in front of the superintendents, “The question you asked is what the doctors are most interested in figuring out at the moment. And from what I’ve been told, the reason for the Cabinet’s indecision is due to a disagreement among the doctors’ group.”
“Huh? Didn’t we send someone to Russia for an inspection before? Did they examine a disagreement after half a day’s inspection?”
“The same ones with swords, if they keep dragging on like this, the number of killings will probably soon exceed that of Scotland Yard and the Army.”
“Sir, are we just going to sit here? What the hell does the Home Office mean now?”
Rowan didn’t answer their question, but simply lifted the officer’s knife in his hand and put on his gloves, nodding at Arthur, “Arthur.”
“Sir?”
Rowan walked to his side and patted his shoulder, “Counting on these big old men is of no use at all, in this kind of thing, it’s still only formally educated college students that can come in handy. Don’t just sit there, go, accompany me to the Chancellor’s Hall.”
(End of chapter)