At the end of the Qing Dynasty, many * * * that should be exercised by Chinese people were controlled by a group of foreign countries. The most famous example is the Qing Customs, which was controlled by an Englishman named Robert Hart for 48 years and has been working as the General Tax Department of the Customs. Not only an important department like customs, but even the health and quarantine rights are controlled by foreigners.

from 191 to 1911, due to the opening of the Middle East Railway, Harbin suffered a catastrophe-many people died inexplicably, which must be a major epidemic. In November 191, a pneumonic plague was introduced into China from Lake Baikal in Russia along the Middle East Railway, and spread rapidly around Harbin. Within four months, it spread to five provinces and six cities, with more than 6, deaths, including 5,272 deaths in Harbin alone, which shocked the world. At that time, there was no specialized epidemic prevention institution in Qing dynasty, and Russia and Japan demanded exclusive epidemic prevention work on the grounds of protecting overseas Chinese, and even threatened to send troops. It is in this way that do or die, Russia and Japan, while taking advantage of epidemic prevention, attempted to seize the police power in the three northeastern provinces.

In December, 191, Lien Teh Wu, who was then the deputy supervisor of Tianjin Army Military Medical School, studied in Britain in his early years and obtained a doctorate in medicine from Cambridge University, went to Harbin to investigate and deal with the plague. Lien Teh Wu lived up to expectations. After he went to Kazakhstan, * * * met the unreasonable demands of Russia and Japan, and in January 1911, he established the first plague research institute in Harbin, where he was only 31 years old.

With the concerted efforts of Lien Teh Wu and his assistant, the test results came out soon, and the epidemic in Northeast China was pneumonic plague. Lien Teh Wu immediately telegraphed Qing * * *, demanding that a large number of doctors be recruited from inside Shanhaiguan pass to Kazakhstan for epidemic prevention. The first applicant to arrive in Harbin was Mesny, a French doctor, a surgeon of the French army, who was then the chief professor of Tianjin Beiyang Medical College.

It is usually fleas that are active in mice that spread plague, but Lien Teh Wu thinks it's strange if it's a hot climate. Now it's freezing, and the temperature is more than 3 degrees below zero in the northeast, so fleas can't be active. How did the plague spread? At that time, the Japanese began their own epidemic prevention method: killing mice, which was followed by Russia. They even thought that the epidemic could be controlled soon. Japan, which has always coveted the three northeastern provinces, once again issued a call to the Qing Dynasty that the right to epidemic prevention should be handed over to them.

However, even if a large number of rats were killed, the epidemic situation was still not controlled. Lien Teh Wu has been looking for new ways. Finally, after summing up, he boldly proposed that this plague was "pneumonic plague", which was mainly transmitted by droplets. Who knows, once Lien Teh Wu's statement was put forward, it was questioned by foreign experts. Japanese doctors are students of Kitasato Shibasaburo, a famous bacteriologist, and French doctors are Mesny, who have experience in preventing and controlling plague. Both of them strongly oppose Lien Teh Wu's bold idea and even scoff at the idea that droplets spread.

When Lien Teh Wu visited the Russian Railway Hospital in the new city to investigate the epidemic situation, he found that the doctors and nurses here were unprotected and no one wore masks. At that time, people didn't understand the mode of transmission of pneumonic plague, which was transmitted from person to person through breathing. He was invited to make rounds with Russian doctors, and only gave him a white robe, a white hat and rubber gloves. Like Russian doctors, he did not have a mask. Lien Teh Wu watched several plague patients warily. Feeling that the working environment was very dangerous, he left the ward in a hurry.

While several parties were arguing, French doctor Mesny contracted the plague and died! Lien Teh Wu learned through investigation that Mesny was infected with the plague by contacting the patient without any protection, which made him more sure that the epidemic was transmitted by droplets.

For the safety of the quarantine team, Lien Teh Wu also invented the earliest medical mask-this kind of mask, which consists of two pieces of gauze and a piece of absorbent cotton, cost only 2.5 cents at that time, but its function is very important. It is still used today and is called "Wu's mask". Lien Teh Wu mobilized a lot of manpower and material resources to ensure that masks were continuously supplied to the public and were quickly accepted by the public.

Mesny was the first doctor who died in an epidemic area. Mesny's death shocked all parties, awakened people's awareness of self-protection, and became an opportunity for the popularization of Wu's mask. He made sacrifices and contributions to the epidemic prevention in the three northeastern provinces with his precious life, which may be unexpected.

In April, 1911, an international conference on plague research was held in Fengtian (now Shenyang), attended by medical experts from 11 countries, including Japan, Britain, the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Mexico and China. Lien Teh Wu was elected as the chairman. At the meeting, he systematically introduced China's experience in preventing and treating plague this time, and experts from all countries attending the meeting exchanged research results from all countries. After the meeting, Lien Teh Wu was appointed as the medical officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while still retaining the post of deputy supervisor of Tianjin Army Military Medical School.

Lien Teh Wu was nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 because of his "outstanding achievements in the practice and research of prevention and treatment of pneumonic plague and the role of marmots in its spread". As the candidate's confidentiality period is 5 years, it was not until 27 that the news was officially revealed on the official website of the Nobel Foundation that Wu Lianzhai Decai was the first person to approach the Nobel Prize in China history.