He nods and makes a note to ask Miriqua what the local word for antimony is.

Beretn occasionally has to interrupt the information exchange to see patients, almost always minor injuries from accidents.

Watson observes these consultations, if that's allowed.

Yes, it is. They have invented painkillers and antiseptics and stitches, which are most of the first line.

None of those are particularly new to Watson either, though he wouldn't be surprised if the formulae of their painkillers and antiseptics were subtly different given that they have different plants.

This is correct.

Usually the patients can go home after they're seen to, a few he has to put in rooms.

Watson soaks up vocabulary and local best practices. The fact that basically everyone starts out with excellent baseline health affects diagnostic assumptions a bit, as well as being heartening.

Everyone not only starts out healthy, they start out with good immune systems, if they're well made - they notice that carelessly made people get sick more often and are likely vectors for disease.

The lack of children is probably also good for public health; children are delightful but they do tend to catch and spread every disease they possibly can.

"Why is it they're particularly susceptible?"

"They haven't gotten resistant to anything, and they put everything in their mouths."

"Gotten resistant? We usually find that a new well-made person is less likely to get sick than someone who was well-made forty years ago."

"Children where I'm from start with bodies unused to any diseases, and become resistant after encountering them."

"There are some diseases you only get once, but you can make a person so they never do in the first place."

"That is lucky. We have ways of doing that for a few diseases, but it's harder than simply making the person that way."

"Well, there are always older people who can catch things, especially the flu."

"Unfortunately the flu isn't one of the ones we can prevent by immunization."

"What can you prevent?"

Watson describes the symptoms of smallpox, cowpox, and cholera, "but I don't know if you have the exact same ones here, and I don't know how to prepare the specific treatments, only the general idea".

"The symptoms appear but not in exactly those clusters."

"I'm not surprised we have different diseases. The general idea is to get the body used to the disease in a weakened form so the strong form can't get them."

"I hope you haven't brought any contagions from wherever you're from."

"Yes, I did worry about that. But anything I might have had when I arrived would be either gone or showing symptoms by now."

"You could still carry it. People who look after those in quarantine have to be in quarantine themselves."

"It's a bit too late to quarantine everyone I've spoken to on this round, but if in your opinion I should avoid people for a while I could do so."