Kudos to you for finding a copy in december ! I absolutely had no idea that there would have so much demand for this book, and I had to wait january to get mine.

Though it’s quite strange how it’s almost entirely the opposite of the method of warming the body during a fever so you can sweat the fever out. I guess it works either way.

>Jimmy
The use of assistants vary from artist to artist actually.

Though for weekly serializations, the artist is usually unable to cope with the workload unless he has assistants working with him, so more likely than not he’d have a team of assistants.

Monthly serializations have less time constraints, and many of them try to do it alone so they don’t have to pay for assistants.

The cold bath could also be a treatement inspired by hippocratic medecine based on the theory of humours.

2- It was quite some time ago. back then, the knowledge in fields like microbiology and virology was a bit lackin, or so I heard.

At any rate, one could wonder if the reviewer found it weird because of the technical aspect, or because it was supposedly french?
Someone mentioned vinegar as a weird idea. Here’s matter for the thought: in Provence, a meridional part of France, until Pasteur brought up evidences about the link between hygiene and disease control, when a plague would threaten the area, people would often use a specific brew of vinegar in which they macerated medicinal herbs as a disinfectant prior and after handling diseased people. That mix was called the “Vinegar of the Four Thieves” (Vinaigre des Quatre Voleurs). There again one can notice the partial foresighting in that method: though one can really question the actual efficiency of this mix when it came to its antiseptic value, the notion of artifical antiseptic was already in the air.

We must give credit to the elders: they didn’t know all they needed to know, but they *tried*.

And for the record, well yeah I am french too ^^; and I always have a giggle when I read a manga which puts french people on stage. Who doesn’t remember Picorette Chardain, the champion of speed-eating in Ranma series, who mixed french and japanese in very strange sentences… like for example “Très bien gozaimasu”? Or “Je t’aime” (I love you) spelt in katakana :D

On the contrary I though the cliché of making body cooler was from japan, lot of manga have the undress scene where the ill patient get cleaned with a cold watered towel.

Having enjoyed Emma, I kinda got the same vibe while flipping through Pure and decided it would be worth looking into how it got started. Glad I did. Apparently I’m also glad I pre-ordered it too, if you had that much trouble hunting it down.

I’ve picked up a couple other of the Pure titles as well and they have all been pretty high quality, with at least a couple pages of color art at the front as well.

Keep the manga reviews coming.

I was under the impression that it was a team effort…

My mother never gave me anything for fevers/colds (other than advice me to stay in bed, tightly covered); she said that any treatments would only weaken my body.

…don’t judge my mom harshly.

And thanks for not throwing another “this is a nice manga.. but I don’t have time to review it!” :P