A Look In The Past 2. Collegium

"Good day to you too, doctor Herzeleid."

"Good morrow to you all, my esteemed fellows."

"Greetings, medicos!"

A number of people milled in the castle grounds. All of them bore the tell-tale insignias of Medical Guild on their sashes, belts or lapels. All of them were intrigued and curious. It was not everyday's occurrence, after all, for the royal physician himself, the highly esteemed sir Pasteur to call for a guild meeting. As one of the less numerous guilds, Medical Guild found no need to maintain a dedicated residence, assembling in numbers in suitable inns whenever a need for collegium arose. To find themselves invited to the royal castle, therefore, signified something important, for sir Pasteur would certainly not ask of the king to furnish the requisite auditorium without a due cause. A hush spread through the small crowd as the man himself strode out of the doors, flanked by six servants.

"Salutations and well met, my esteemed colleagues." - he announced in loud voice - "Please follow me to the halls. I have much to tell you. The servants here will attend to your needs, should you require something."

An auspicious beginning, they all thought as they filed in uneven line after the royal physician. There were subtleties and nuances in everything within the royal castle, even in the number of servants. Normally, the meetings sir Pasteur would call were to be attended by two, maybe three at most. Six of them? That implied that the king himself had favored the meeting, and therefore the topics to be discussed promised to be of utmost importance. Some new law requirement, perhaps? Or maybe some new medical knowledge deemed important enough by his highness to command his personal attention? Very intriguing.

It took a little bit of time for them to file in and find the seating in the spacious auditorium. Servants immediately busied themselves by distributing assorted refreshments to the guests, pouring flavored water, ale and mulled wine per request. Sir Pasteur had taken the front, standing in front of the lectern.

"My esteemed colleagues, I bring you good tidings." - he began - "We were blessed by a largesse of medical instrumentation by the grace of Gillespie house and his highness the king. Each of you will leave with a set of new tools for your own use for the betterment of the kingdom. Should any of you require additional pieces, they can be ordered from the settlement of Grand Forge. For those of you who did not keep up with the news, Grand Forge is a new town within Gillespie county. A town of dwarves."

He paused, as an excited murmur arose among the doctors briefly.

"Yes, it is so." - he then confirmed - "It has been seven long years, but take heart. From now on, we shall have the benefit of finest dwarven smithing again. I have been personally gifted a comprehensive instrumentarium by lady Gillespie herself, and after perusing those fine tools extensively and conferring with his highness upon my findings, the king had deemed it appropriate to order a sufficient number of sets to distribute to all magisters of Medicine in good standing, one set per person."

On his signal, the servants got busy again, bringing out the sizable leather cases and settling them next to each occupied seat. Some of the doctors in attendance were about to pop the lids open already, but were stopped by sir Pasteur clearing his throat. Satisfied with attention levels, he continued sedately.

"Now, my good fellows, I quite understand your desire to immediately peruse the contents, but... I must ask you to be patient. Forgive me this little bit of legerdemain, but I dearly wish to show off the contents myself, for there are many novel tools among the set that, I am quite sure, will excite and intrigue you." - he proffered - "As such, kindly follow my instructions, if you please."

He hefted his own case on the lectern and with a flourish, popped the clasps open, swinging the lid off.

"Please open the lids now, my good fellows, and take a good look at the collection of fine scalpels and tongs that are present in the top compartment." - he continued - "You will immediately notice there is a greater assortment than most of you had been used to. What we have here is the expanded set of scalpels with an exciting assortment of blades of different lengths and curvatures. However, this much is but an old hat to you, gentlemen. It's the tongs that are the true novelties here. Behold, gentlemen. Locking tongs. Just as the scalpels, an assortment of head shapes is furnished, from the blunt tampon holder to the fine needlenose."

The air in the auditorium immediately became full of metallic clicks and appreciative tongue clicking as the entire collegium pulled out assorted tools and began examining them in detail. A few moments later, a hand arose in the middle.

"Yes, doctor Flemail?" - Pasteur proffered with a smile - "You have a question?"

"Sir Pasteur, I couldn't help but notice... Is the entire instrumentarium made of steel?" - the doctor in question asked incredulously.

"Quite so. I do know some of you are more used to brass and copper taking prevalence in their drawer, but I do quite believe all of you will agree that steel is the superior material." - Pasteur confirmed - "Even better, the prices the dwarves request for additional steel instruments are far more agreeable then you would think. So cast aside the worries about the instrumentarium being a burden to replace or bolster. Moreso, this steel does not rust. I know, I know, I could not believe it myself, but the experiment had borne out that outstanding claim. I have personally placed a scalpel within the wet earth in the gardens and even a whole two weeks later, there was not a speck of rust upon it. There is a good reason why all of us had prized and hoarded the few remaining tools of dwarven craftsmanship, and I am overjoyed to tell you that this time is over. From now on, we may enjoy this cornucopia unhindered."

All in all, sir Pasteur surmised, that was a good enough reason for his fellows to raise a ragged cheer, decorum be damned. He waited for the clamor to subside, then rapped on his lectern sharply.

"Now, bear with me, my colleagues, for I am about to ask you for an incredible show of restraint. Please return all the tools to their rightful places." - he began with a smirk - "And once you have done so, lift up the whole plate and flip it on the lid, like so."

He demonstrated on his own set, reminding the excited doctors that the cases were much bigger than what was necessary to hold the instruments. Any objections had been immediately pushed out of their minds as they hurried to replace the tools and take a peek in the second, much deeper compartment.

Pasteur lifted a glass dish out of the case and held it up in the air. "Sample dishes, gentlemen." - he announced grandly - "Each comes with a tight lid, so whatever is placed within will remain within, so long as the dish itself is intact. Those can be ordered from Bakarat glassworks, courtesy of his excellency prince Edward, who had graciously loaned the experience of his glasswork manufactories to aid lady Gillespie's efforts to improve the quality of medicine in our fine kingdom. A set of six is provided with each instrumentarium, which should prove sufficient for initial effort, but I do believe each of you will be capable of gauging how many of those do you practically need on your own."

He put the dish back in and pulled out a bottle full of clear liquid next. "This next bit is my personal addition, my good men. As all of you know, strong spirits have a detrimental effect on diseases. It is a pity they have even worse effects on the rest of our bodies as well." - he chuckled, putting the bottle back down - "The liquid within is rectified grain spirits, which can be ordered in quarte bottles from Gillespie county or purchased in detail from the northern merchants. The bottles themselves can be procured from the glassworks in Bakarat. Prince Edward had graciously listened to my ideas for what kind of bottle we the medics might need and made them available for general purchase. Note that the cork is glass as well and fits into the bottle very snugly. It can be safely sealed by wax as many times as needed. My initial request for just for a pinte bottle, but his excellency had wisely expanded my initial request to encompass an assortment of different volumes. I have been told that there are bottles of posson, pinte, quarte and even velte available, all fitted with resealable glass corks per my initial request."

The next object was even more interesting. Holding up the inspection mirror, sir Pasteur used it to peer under the lid without lifting it. His actions were copied by the doctors. "As you can see, those handy mirrors permit you to look into the things in entirely new ways. This is particularly useful for teeth examination, allowing you to explore the condition of upper jaw and back teeth without contorting yourself or your patient." - he explained.

Once again, he had given his colleagues a bit of time to settle down, before proceeding towards the implement all of them had been eyeing with some interest. Pulling out the magnification lens stand, he gingerly set it on the lectern.

"This next tool is something none of us had at our disposal before." - Pasteur began with a flourish - "I am sure that most of you have had some use of magnification lens by now. This is the next step. The lens is securely mounted upon the articulated arm, permitting the placement of the lens as convenient while leaving both hands free. Even more importantly, since the lens is mounted upon the arm of metal, it neither tires nor trembles as a servant's arm wont. The clever arrangement of springs and levers means that the arm is easy to adjust without any need in loosening and tightening the bindings, yet remains stable in the position you desire for as long as it is necessary."

Taking a step back, he flagged the nearest servant for a glass of water, taking a break and refreshing his parched throat while the doctors fiddled with their own lens stands and murmured to each other about the sheer convenience of such a clever construction.

"But wait. There's more!" - he continued as he lifted out the penultimate object and placed it upon his head, flipping the convex mirror down to cover his eye - "Take the eye mirrors and put them on, gentlemen. It is time for you all to behold the truly new word in medicine. With this clever mirror shape, affixed to reflect whatever light is present directly in front of you, we can peer in all sorts of crevices and orifices that would normally be too dark to see within and examine them with perfect clarity. Close the other eye and peer through the aperture in the mirror, and you shall see the grand difference for yourselves. There is a sigil written into the bottom of each case, which you normally would not be able to see well, unless you empty the case entirely and hold it to the light. Well, no more! Just peer within and see it as clear as day! This eye mirror is absolutely invaluable in conjunction with the inspection mirror I have showcased earlier to examine the entirety of natural orifices, such as mouth, ears and nostrils. And believe me, gentlemen, there is much to see."

A few minutes later, after the excitement abated once more (and more than a few ears, noses and mouths had been indeed peered into), Pasteur laid his hand on the last compartment of the case.

"Gentlemen, I have saved the most profound tool of them all for the last." - he announced grandly, as he pulled out the separate case, unclasped it and retrieved the microscope, settling it down - "This magnificent contraption permits unparalleled magnification of a hundred times. I have seen the things no medic before me had ever beheld before. Now, you shall see them as well. Take the microscopes out now, please. Sean, the samples please."

In the end, Pasteur had to step down from the lectern and go around the auditorium to help his colleagues with the proper setup.

"Now, you might be wondering why I had Sean here bring us moldy cheese..." - he began - "And the answer is, we shall see what the mold looks like in fine detail. Gentlemen, take a slice each and place it on the microscope like this... ...All done? Good. Now take a look into the ocular... That's the upper tube, yes. The crank on the side adjusts the focus to bring the image into clarity... Yes. Yes, gentlemen. The mold is actually a fungus. Most astonishing, I agree. Now, I have plenty of different samples for all of you to look at. Leaves, breadcrumbs, seeds, swamp water! All of those have hidden minuscules none of us ever thought to exist, all revealed by this marvel of ingenuity... My good fellows, do not rush like so. Plenty of samples for everyone, I assure you."

As the meeting devolved into a veritable pandemonium of curiosity, excitement and awe, sir Pasteur had stepped back and dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief. He knew full well how incredible the first experience with a microscope could be and expected the auditorium to be busy well until the sunset. His mind was occupied by one single thought - 'If that much is what lady Gillespie can reveal on a moment's lark, just how much there is yet to know that she may guide us all to find?' He could not wait to find out.