Chapter 2786: The mystery of ergot

"Dear Doctor, sincerity is a virtue, but how come your sincerity is so bad?!"
His Majesty the Emperor shook his head dumbly.
"I heard that being angry will make people short-lived. If I die early, you will be the biggest murderer!"
"It's sloppy, Your Majesty, it's sloppy! I have read a lot of literature on the correlation between anger and human lifespan. If you want to talk about this, I can talk about it..."
Qiao An put down his teacup and took advantage of the situation to come back with a tactical look back, intending to give the emperor a good science.
However, Roland didn't want to listen to him "lecture", so he changed the topic decisively.
"Dr. Vader, I will go to the radio station to record the show later, let's talk about business first."
"Isn't "Fireside Talk" only broadcast tomorrow night?"
"That's why it needs to be recorded in advance, Dr. Vader, this is not the kind of live broadcast." Roland explained with a smile.
Qiao An nodded suddenly.
"Your Majesty, regarding the torch syndrome, I want to hear your opinion first."
"Dr. Vader, I think the torch disease is neither a malignant infectious disease like smallpox or plague, nor a supernatural phenomenon in which evil spirits are possessed. It may just be a simple poisoning."
When Roland said this, he first stopped to observe the changes in Qiao An's expression, and then asked a question.
"You may question the possibility of food poisoning that covers the entire Far East and affects various people with different dining habits?"
"Yes!" Without waiting for His Majesty’s question and answer, Qiao An replied decisively, "If the food that the general public eats every day is contaminated with the same kind of toxin with a strong seasonality, then there will be cases of poisoning on a large scale in a short period of time. It's not impossible!"
"Yes, that's what I meant." His Majesty's smile became a little stiff, "Then which food do you think is most likely to meet the above conditions?"
"Of course it is grain!" Qiao Ann replied straightforwardly, "Whether it is a Southerner or Northerner, Old World inhabitant or New World colonist, bread is indispensable on the table of every household, so once the flour is contaminated, widespread poisoning will occur. symptom."
"Damn it! You know this, you know it, you know everything, so what can I say? This is really unpleasant, Dr. Vader!"
His Majesty the emperor repeatedly brewed to pretend to be a big X, but Qiao An ruthlessly interrupted the rhythm of "chanting", and suddenly felt a nausea in his chest, uncomfortable as if he had a heart attack.
"Your Majesty, did I say anything wrong?" Qiao An's face was blank.
"That's not..."
"Since I am right, why are you upset?"
"..."
"It seems that the problem lies with you, your majesty," Qiao An looked at the emperor sympathetically, with the mentality of "Zhengyou" to persuade him, "How about...you should reflect on it?"
"Forget it! Talk to someone like you, you shouldn't go in circles at all!"
Roland shrugged and smiled bitterly, opened the desk drawer angrily, and took out the two glass trays.
Qiao An leaned over and took a look and found that one tray contained several coin-sized brown biscuits, and the other contained half-inch-long purple-red horn-like particles, which were the products of fungal infections of cereals. It is commonly known as "ergot".
"Dr. Vader, these two things are the evidence collected during the investigation of the'Witchcraft Case' in Huyang Village, the biscuits baked by the defendant Tituba, and the sacrifices devoured by the dwarf women on the day of the festival, which is ergot. , There is a subtle connection between the two."
Qiao An nodded knowingly, and cast a 0-level spell "Detect Toxicity" on the biscuits and ergot in the tray, but did not detect any abnormal reaction.
This is not surprising. In fact, the fungus "ergot" is not considered a typical poison, just like long-term smoking and drinking are harmful to the human body, but most people do not regard tobacco and alcohol as poison.
For this kind of substances with complex ingredients, both toxic and medicinal, the trick-level drug testing methods may not be effective, which Qiao An has verified yesterday.
The resident priest Saguna of Populus Village, on the night of the unannounced visit to the Tituba hut, also used a method to detect leftover biscuits and ergots on the dining table. Because he could not detect toxins, he took a piece of it lightly. I ate the small biscuits baked with ergot-mixed flour, but unfortunately, I was stricken, and soon after I went home, I became toxic and hallucinated in my lethargy.
Saguna didn’t understand why he had these abnormal symptoms at the time. Later, the local flame broke out, making him suspect that the dwarf witch Tituba was doing a ghost, but he didn’t realize that the flour was contaminated and the eater was poisoned. The root cause was He relied too much on his magical skills, thinking that if the toxins were not detected by the spell, he was really non-toxic, and made a preconceived mistake.
For the detection of toxins and germs, Qiao An can responsibly say that one is counted as one. It is not 100% reliable, but it meets the confidence level in the statistical sense, and occasionally misjudgments and omissions are inevitable.
Ergot is a "fish that slipped through the net", but it just so happens that this fish that slipped through the net is related to the staple food on the tables of thousands of households. It has a wide range of implications and serious harm.
Qiao An ate lunch with Conti yesterday, and went to the market together, focusing on visiting grain shops and bakeries, collecting some ergot samples as he wished, and doing some investigations by the way.
According to the feedback from the survey, only 70% of the employees and bakers who think that ergot is inedible and harmful to health accounted for only 70% of the total number of respondents.
There are also 30% of the respondents believe that ergot tastes bitter and affects the taste of flour, and it is best to remove it, but even if it is not removed, it is not harmful to health.
Practitioners in grain shops and bakeries can be said to be the group most adept at cereals and flour. Even among these professionals, 30% think that ergot is harmless. It is conceivable that ordinary people will not care much. If this little ergot is eaten by mistake, it may be poisoned and suffer from the so-called "sacred fire syndrome."
"Dr. Vader, to tell you, I suspect that the torch syndrome is essentially a symptom of ergot poisoning caused by accidental ingestion of ergot. However, I only know what it is, but I don’t know why. If someone asks me about the specific toxicity of ergot and how to prevent ergot poisoning, I can't tell."
His Majesty the Emperor sighed, looking at Qiao An's eyes full of expectation.
"Tomorrow morning, I will go to the radio station to record an issue of "Fireside Talk". The theme is to prevent and cure the torch. Before that, I need to have a deeper understanding of the principles of this disease. Dr. Vinda, you are an expert in the field of epidemic prevention. , I would like to ask your opinion."
"Your Majesty, you have a good guess, ergot, it is indeed the root cause of the'sacred fire syndrome'!" Qiao An asserted firmly. The latest chapter address of Master Qiao An: https://EbookFREE.me/book/102085.htmlThe reading address of Master Qiao’s article: https://EbookFREE.me/read/102085/Master Qiao An txt download address: https://EbookFREE.me/down/102085.htmlMaster Qiao An’s mobile phone reading: https://m.EbookFREE.me/read/102085/ In order to facilitate the next reading, you can click "Favorites" below to record the reading record of this time (Chapter 2786 Lysergic Mystery), and you can see it next time you open the bookshelf! If you like "Master Qiao An", please recommend this book to your friends (QQ, blog, WeChat, etc.), thank you stand by! (EbookFREE.me)