The car pulled up in front of the house, and Elizabeth stepped out and began walking toward the house and then running, her legs carrying her as fast as they could. The front door opened and Margherita, the Sardinian housekeeper, stood there smiling “Hello, Miss Elizabeth.”
“Where’s my father?” Elizabeth asked.
“He had to go to Australia on some emergency. But he left a lot of pretty presents for you. It’s going to be a lovely Christmas.”
CHAPTER 11
Elizabeth had brought the Book with her. She stood in the hallway of the villa, studying the painting of Samuel Roffe, and next to him, Terenia, feeling their presence, as though they had come to life. After a long time Elizabeth turned and climbed up the ladder to the tower room, taking the Book. She spent hours every day in the tower room, reading and rereading, and each time she felt closer to Samuel and Terenia, the century that separated them disappearing…
Over the next few years, Elizabeth read, Samuel spent long hours in Dr. Wal’s laboratory, helping him mix ointments and medicines, learning how they worked. And always in the background was Terenia, haunting, beautiful. The very sight of her was enough to keep alive Samuel’s dream that one day she would belong to him. Samuel got along well with Dr. Wal, but Terenia’s mother was another story. She was a sharp-tongued virago, a snob, and she hated Samuel. He tried to keep out of her way.
Samuel was fascinated by the many drugs that could heal people. A papyrus had been found that listed 811 prescriptions used by the Egyptians in 1550 B.C. Life expectancy at birth then was fifteen years and Samuel could understand why when he read some of the prescriptions: crocodile dung, lizard flesh, bat’s blood, camel’s spit, lion’s liver, toe of a frog, unicorn powder. The Rx sign on every prescription was the ancient prayer to Horae, the Egyptian god of healing. Even the word “chemistry” derived from the ancient name of Egypt, the land of Kahmi, or Chemi. The priest-physicians were called magi, Samuel learned.
The apothecary shops in the ghetto and in Krakow itself were primitive. Most of the bottles and jars were filled with untested and untried medicinal items, some useless, some harmful. Samuel became familiar with them all. There were castor oil, calomel, and rhubarb, iodine compounds and codeine and ipecac. You could purchase panaceas for whooping cough, colic and typhoid fever. Because no sanitary precautions were taken, it was common to find ointments and gargles filled with dead insects, roaches, rat droppings and bits of feathers and furs. The majority of patients who took the remedies died either of their diseases or from the remedies.
Several magazines were printed that were devoted to apothecary news, and Samuel read them all avidly. He discussed his theories with Dr. Wal.
“It stands to reason,” Samuel said, his voice ringing with conviction, “that there must be a cure for every disease. Health is natural, disease is unnatural.”
“Perhaps,” Dr. Wal said, “but most of my patients won’t even let me try the new medications on them.” He added dryly, “And I think they’re wise.”
Samuel devoured Dr. Wal’s sparse library on pharmacy. And when he had read and reread those books, he felt frustrated by the unanswered questions that lay between the covers.
Samuel was fired by the revolution that was taking place. Some scientists believed that it was possible to counteract the cause of diseases by building up a resistance that would destroy the illness. Dr. Wal tried it once. He took the blood of a patient with diphtheria and injected it into a horse. When the horse died, Dr. Wal gave up his experiments. But young Samuel was sure that Dr. Wal had been on the right track.
“You can’t stop now,” Samuel said. “I know it will work.”
Dr. Wal shook his head. “That’s because you’re seventeen, Samuel. When you’re my age, you won’t be as sure of anything. Forget about it.”
But Samuel was not convinced. He wanted to continue his experiments, but for that Samuel needed animals, and there were few available except for the stray cats and rats that he was able to catch. No matter how minute the doses that Samuel gave them, they died. They’re too small, Samuel thought. I need a larger animal. A horse or a cow or a sheep. But where was he going to find one?