The Fox of France

Chapter 251: Debate

Amidst such debates, the subsequent installments of the travelogue continued to be published. This time, the content of the travelogue began to touch upon the healthcare system.

In this entry, Miss Crystelle first praised the charitable efforts of the Anglican Church in establishing hospitals. She compared this to the performance of the Catholic Church in France before the Revolution and called for the French Catholic Church to learn from the good practices of other churches, including the Anglican Church, to avoid repeating their past mistakes. (Marmon was a god from some ancient Middle Eastern religions, later demonized by the Jews after they had conquered Canaan. In the Bible, Jesus said that a servant cannot serve two masters at the same time, nor can one follow God and Marmon simultaneously.)

This part, of course, delighted some English readers, but it left others rather displeased. Especially when Miss Crystelle promptly donated 500 pounds to support the Anglican Church's good deeds, some of them felt like reaching through the newspaper to grab her hand, saying, "Kind and naive Miss Crystelle, you have no idea how treacherous people can be! When it comes to worshiping Marmon, they aren't any different from the pre-Revolution French Catholics. The only thing they've excelled at beyond the French Catholics is hypocrisy. Give them that money, and not a pound of it will reach the poor; the rest will be squandered on their mistresses. It'd be better to give it to me..."

However, the following part changed the mood of both groups completely. This was because Miss Crystelle began describing the unbelievably filthy conditions in British hospitals.

"The wards were damp and dimly lit, akin to a tomb. Even though it was daytime, it took me quite a while to adjust my eyes when I entered the ward. Once my eyes had adapted, my heart couldn't.

This was no hospital ward; it was more like a garbage dump. The floor was littered with sewage, and blood-soaked bandages were scattered everywhere. Clusters of green-headed flies clung to them, and when a nurse passed by, they buzzed up like a cloud of smoke.

Apart from the flies, rats scurried all around. There was one patient – dear Lord, it was horrifying – he had a large piece of his lower lip missing, supposedly bitten off by rats during the night. It was truly horrific.

But that's not the worst part. The doctors here seemed to have no concept of hygiene. Their work clothes were stained with blood and other unmentionable filth, and the rough fabric, due to the dirt, had taken on a leathery sheen.

If a doctor dared to show up in such a dirty state at a French hospital, what do you think would happen? Well, during our war with the Austrians, I volunteered to assist, along with other great women, in caring for the wounded in our military hospital. There, we wouldn't even let ourselves get as dirty as they appear, and if a doctor forgot to thoroughly sterilize his surgical tools in boiling water, Dean Hanmer might have used those tools on him.

So, I cautiously inquired whether there were many cases of infections, fevers, and deaths in the hospital. To my dismay, Mr. Owen, the Deputy Head of the Hospital, confirmed my suspicions. He told me that most patients brought to the hospital for treatment had little hope of returning home healthy. Often, their families had already prepared their funerals before they even arrived. As for those who underwent surgery and bled, less than one out of ten was likely to survive.

Mr. Owen further informed me that the condition of hospitals in Britain, and indeed hospitals worldwide, was no different. He emphasized that the state of hospitals in Britain was among the best in the world.

After leaving Grace Hospital, I immediately sent Mr. Pierre to buy a copy of The Lancet and sent it to Mr. Owen. Mr. Pierre suggested that we buy several copies because the situation at Grace Hospital might not be an isolated case, and it was clear that The Lancet had limited influence in Britain compared to its prominence in France's medical community. Therefore, many doctors and hospital administrators had probably not seen the paper I referred to.

As it turned out, Mr. Pierre's concerns were well-founded. Over the following days, I visited several other hospitals in Britain, only to discover that each one was no different from Grace Hospital – and they were all unfamiliar with The Lancet's influence."

After going around in circles, I believed that Dr. Owen should have finished reading the paper from The Lancet. An elder scientist wrote the introduction to this paper, stating that while it lacked theoretical evidence, it was a reasonable hypothesis. Because it had shown excellent practical results, it held significant value for promotion and discussion. I thought Dr. Owen would agree with this perspective and implement some improvements based on this experience.

However, when I returned to Grace Hospital, I found that nothing had changed from a few days ago. I, being impatient by nature, went to find Deputy Head Dr. Owen. He informed me that he had indeed read the paper from The Lancet, and despite the eminent Dr. Lavasie writing an introduction for it, the author of the paper was an unknown figure. He believed the entire paper was speculative and lacked theoretical evidence, and thus he couldn't place his trust in it.

We had a heated argument, and Dr. Owen told me that the decision was not in his hands but in the hands of Dr. James, the hospital director. Moreover, Dr. James was a director of the British Medical Association. If I wanted to change the rules in all of Britain's hospitals, it was best to convince Dr. James.

So, I went to see Dr. James, but he displayed immense stubbornness. He insisted that the paper in The Lancet was baseless and that our hospital's data was utterly unreliable. He even criticized the credentials of the esteemed Dr. Lavasie, who had highly praised the paper. It seemed he suspected that we were putting forth these 'heretical ideas' merely to damage the reputation of the British medical community...

In summary, Dr. James and I had a major argument, and he eventually threw me out. Admittedly, I must confess that I might have gotten a bit carried away during this encounter. However, Dr. James was just too obstinate, not even agreeing to perform a controlled experiment according to the French experience. I had heard many people say that the English were exceptionally stubborn, and today, it seemed that this claim might hold some truth...

This travelogue, upon its publication, sparked a debate far surpassing any previous entry.

Those in support of Miss Crystelle naturally attacked the Anglican Church, the Medical Association, accusing them of caring only for money and not the lives of the people. Those against Miss Crystelle and The Lancet attacked her from various angles.

Some accused Miss Crystelle of boasting, labeling her a young girl who claimed to have served in a military hospital and knew the great Lavasie – "Is her next story going to be that she dines regularly with Napoleon?"

Some even mocked The Lancet for believing in the sorcery of savages.

In essence, the newspapers of the "English News League" sided against Miss Crystelle, defending the 'medical dignity' of Britain, while the "English Freedom News League" stood in support of Miss Crystelle. However, they didn't seem particularly concerned about whether The Lancet's claims were accurate. They were more focused on the systemic issues that continually disadvantaged the common people in Britain.

Following this, "The Sun" newspaper joined the fray. In response to "The Times" questioning Miss Crystelle's identity, "The Sun" leveraged its expertise in digging up personal information and thoroughly introduced who Miss Crystelle really was to the British public.

Miss Crystelle's identity was not well-known in England, but in France, at least within artistic circles, many people were familiar with her. So "The Sun" quickly exposed Miss Crystelle's true identity.

Then the British people discovered that the notorious French author, "Crystelle," was even more legendary than she boasted. She was the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul of France, and the sister of France's greatest scientist, Joseph Bonaparte. She had once personally planted the victorious flag on a fortress newly reclaimed from the enemy on the battlefield and participated in nursing wounded soldiers as the sister of General Napoleon. The soldiers hailed her as the "Toulon Saint." As for her acquaintance with Lavasie, given her brother's friendship with Lavasie, wasn't that entirely normal? Some even quipped, "Miss Crystelle does indeed dine with the First Consul quite often."

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