Chapter 105 Medicine No Longer Exists
Lamarck continued: "I have seen people growing potatoes in the northeastern region, such as Metz, Lorraine and Bessin, and some villages and towns there also use potatoes as their staple food. As for other places... the Toulouse people They don’t even want to feed potatoes to pigs because they say it will contaminate the pork.”
Joseph was a little depressed, and finally found a way to alleviate the great famine, but the French would rather starve than eat this.
And according to Lamarck, the nobles have accepted potatoes very early, so why have they not been able to affect ordinary people?
Large-scale publicity through newspapers and pamphlets, as well as free samples, may have some effect.
He also remembered that Lamarck had just mentioned that some people said that potatoes are "the devil under the ground." In other words, superstition may be the main reason why people reject potatoes. In this case, the church needs to cooperate with the promotion...
Later, Joseph asked Lamarck about potato cultivation. As the two of them were talking, the carriage had already arrived at the door of the pharmaceutical workshop.
"Your Highness, it seems that you are very interested in potatoes." Lamarck stopped talking, "I can sort out this knowledge and copy it to you."
Joseph looked at him with an impatient expression and could only nod his head: "Thank you very much, Count Lamarck. Then, let's start trial production of penicillin now."
"You mean, penicillin? Is this the name of that magical drug?" Lamarck quickly took out a pen and paper and began to record.
"Yes." Joseph paused as he spoke, and then told Lamarck, "Even the name cannot be revealed. From now on, we will use type 1 antibiotics to refer to this drug."
The words "penicillin" and "penicillium" are so similar that it is easy for people to connect the two.
This strategic level drug must not leak any information.
It was a royal guard who opened the door to the pharmaceutical workshop for Joseph and the others - now they have taken over the security work here.
Joseph frowned slightly when he saw the stiff uniforms on the guards and the muskets behind them, and ordered the guard captain Kesode to change these guards into civilian clothes so as not to attract the attention of foreign spies.
When the car stopped in the open space in the middle of the workshop, Emang immediately opened the car door for the Crown Prince.
"Thank you." Joseph nodded to the attendant, got out of the car, looked around, and saw that this place was very different from before.
First of all the grounds are spotless. The workers' clothes and the tools in the workshop are very clean, and it doesn't look like the style of the 18th century.
Under the shed on the right should be a drying rack, with various raw materials that need to be dried on it.
Workers shuttled back and forth in the workshop, either carrying raw materials or loading prepared medicines onto carriages.
Of course, more people are busy in front of various instruments, raising their hands from time to time to call out various data to the recorder on the side, who will remind them of the operation time. Occasionally, a faint stream of steam would drift over, covering their figures.
Joseph nodded secretly. It was obvious that Lamarck had put a lot of effort into running this place. It is estimated that there may not be a more professional pharmaceutical place in Paris than this one.
He visited the laboratory again and basically confirmed that it had the conditions to produce penicillin.
He turned to look at Lamarque and said, "Let's get started. First, please find some moldy things, the green ones."
Although Lamarck was a little surprised, he still wrote it down in his notebook carefully, then turned around and left the room.
Perhaps because the hygiene of the workshop was so good, it took him more than half an hour to return with a few moldy dried corns and a moldy towel.
Joseph lowered his voice and said: "Now let me tell you the most important point - this type 1 antibiotic is actually the secretion of Penicillium and can be extracted from these mold spots."
Lamarck's eyes widened in surprise, but the Dauphin had shocked him more than once. He didn't have any doubt at all, he just kept recording.
Joseph recalled the documentary about penicillin he had seen before and said: "So first we need to cultivate more mold. You can use corn, rice, potatoes and other things to make a thin paste, and put the mold on it. Then Control the temperature to a certain level, and you have to do your own experiments to determine the specific temperature. A large amount of mold will proliferate in a few days.
"The other thing is to cultivate the bacteria for testing the efficacy of the drug in advance. For example, use the sputum of pneumonia patients, put it into filtered broth or agar, control the temperature, and wait for them to proliferate..."
"Wait a minute!" Lamarck discovered a blind spot, "You mean, what kind of 'germs' are there in the sputum of pneumonia patients? Is this related to pneumonia?"
Joseph raised his forehead and remembered that although the medical community at this time knew the existence of bacteria, it had not yet been able to connect bacteria with diseases.
He had to give Lamarck a rough science guide: "There are indeed pathogenic components in sputum, specifically some kind of bacteria."
"Bacteria? You mean bacteria can cause illness?!" Lamarck looked extremely excited. "No, this is completely different from the miasma theory, the body fluid balance theory or the acid-base balance theory. How do bacteria make people sick? And you are How to determine this? Is there a mature theoretical system..."
"Well, the theories about miasma and body fluids you mentioned are incorrect. And the answer you want is actually in the medicine you are about to develop." Joseph stopped the curious baby from continuing to ask questions. This medical knowledge is a long way to go, and he doesn’t know much about it.
So it would be better to wait for penicillin to be produced, so that Lamarck can see with his own eyes that penicillin can "purify" sputum culture, that is, Klebsiella pneumoniae. Then, when he observes penicillin curing pneumonia patients, he will naturally understand the relationship between germs and diseases.
Lamarck's hands were shaking slightly. If what the prince said was true, then all the medical knowledge he had learned would be overturned! In other words, the entire medical community would no longer exist!
And if what the prince said was wrong, then the magical type 1 antibiotic might just be a fantasy.
He didn't want either result...
Lamarck suddenly thought of a philosophical question - if all the previous medical knowledge was wrong, then is he still a doctor, or should he be considered a liar, or a rumor spreader...
He shook his head, trying not to think about these questions that would drive him crazy, and refocused on the medicine: "Your Highness, what should we do next?"
Joseph looked at his pale face, sighed lightly, and continued: "Filter the Penicillium culture carefully. The specific filtering method must be determined by you through experiments.
"Since penicillin is water-soluble, we can use oil to extract other substances in the filtrate, leaving only the bottom layer that is insoluble in oil.
"Then use activated carbon to purify..."
"What is activated carbon?" The blind student's point appeared again.
"Oh, activated carbon is to dry-burn wood blocks in metal containers..."
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