Free Biogenesis by Tatsuaki Ishiguro Page B

results, including thefact that rapid thawing in a 113°F bath was preferable over gradual thawing and massages in the field, which were anathema. In addition, upon puncturing the blisters, filled with cloudy liquid, he tried several traditional ointments, compared their effects, and even developed a special medicine of his own concoction that he named the “H-47” and that used a mold extract. Although these were medical facts, at the same time they were military secrets that Yuhki was strictly prohibited from publishing, and thus he was limited to reporting his progress to Ishiguro. For this reason Yuhki is not known for his work on frostbite, but it was revolutionary for its time, being half a step ahead of the intense research that Russia was conducting to counter freezing climes.
    It was on the day the coldest temperature ever to be observed in Japan was recorded in nearby Asahikawa (February 22, 1926) that Mitsuo Gondo, a soldier charged with bringing in firewood to the barracks each day, discovered a woman in the woodshed, where apparently she had fallen into a coma after entering to rest awhile. He carried her into the clinic. The medical chart describes the woman who had been brought in as having white hair and a deathly pale complexion and even notes that her torso was showing signs of stiffness. Nurse Sugita recalled that when she held the woman’s arm to take her pulse, it felt so cold that she assumed for a moment that the woman must have already frozen to death. When Yuhki examined the patient, however, he found a slow pulse and confirmed slight movements of her chest and thereby respiration, upon which he immediately undertook attempts to revive her. According to the paper Yuhki later published in German, upon her arrival at the clinic the woman’s body temperature was 75.2°F, her pulse twenty beats per minute, and her respiration rate three breaths per minute.
    Although her condition seemed relatively stable, actively warming her somehow resulted in a lower blood pressure, as Yuhki noted in the medical chart: “Blood pressure dipped upon warming, perhaps because capillaries, constricted under low temperature, responded toheating with overcompensating expansion.”
    If her blood vessels had contracted to maintain blood pressure after her heart rate had slowed, then, assuming that the warming had not restored cardiac activity, blood vessels expanding indeed meant less resistance and lower pressure. Observation at room temperature was the only possible treatment for such symptoms whether or not they owed to a unique metabolism, and Yuhki was reduced to adopting the gradual warming method that he held to be anathema for frostbite patients, though, to be fair, the conditions were not identical. It was a little over two days later that the woman regained consciousness without any perceptible change in her condition, and Yuhki was in for an even greater surprise. While her mind seemed clear, and her overall condition stable, her body temperature never rose above 86°F, and her pulse, though it fluctuated, never exceeded thirty beats per minute.
    According to Sugita’s recollections, Yuki was roughly five feet in height, pale enough to appear anemic, and presumed to be young, on account of the white hair that fell straight to the small of her back, though her real age was unclear. Communicating with her was somewhat awkward, but she could speak normally, as well as read and write. She retained, however, nearly no memories regarding herself, including her name, where she had lived, and how she had come to Shinjo, and it was recorded that she was in “an advanced state of amnesia.” A check was made against current missing persons reports on file with the police, but no one matching her description was found. Apart from her low body temperature, her dislike of sunshine, and her predilection for drinking cold water, she did not exhibit any salient physical abnormalities. Judging from the charts, exams of her