Chapter 161 Chapter 161 Penicillin

This time, Wa Shi's merchant ships came to Da'an again. Except for the basic expenses used by the people, all orders and goods were sold.

Daan made a fortune.

As for how much price these merchants want to sell the goods for, that is not something Lin Si needs to worry about.

Lin Si and Mo Jinglian had specially kept something in reserve and deliberately did not display calcium carbide lamps among the sample products displayed to Wa Shi this time.

Calcium carbide lamps are a new product, and they are in short supply even in Da'an, let alone being sold to them.

Several counties and cities submitted their plans to Liang Nian, and it can be said that they fought tooth and nail for this calcium carbide lamp factory.

The current prefects and county magistrates are being replaced gradually and slowly, and the old officials left over from the former Dachen are also gradually stepping down.

Young people who have received various educations and learned various advanced ideas from an early age often know how to consider the entire county or the entire state better than the decadent old ones.

These young people even resorted to complaining and slandering others in their plans.

Liang Nian selected a passage from one of the reports and read it to Lin Si.

"I believe the calcium carbide plant should be located in You County. You County is a major producer of limestone, and if it were located there, the cost of transporting the raw materials would be eliminated. I heard that neighboring Nandong Road is also vying for this position, but they already have a glass factory that produces a variety of glassware, including popular specialty products like glass shell hairpins. Even their smoked fish is popular with Japanese foodies. Adding calcium carbide would be inappropriate. You County is currently in need of development, with only one conventional cement factory."

Lin Si was drinking tea to refresh himself, and couldn't help but smile when he heard this classic pitiful remark.

"This county magistrate is quite clever. He's fighting for calcium carbide, not calcium carbide lamps. Calcium carbide is a consumable; it needs to be replenished after use. If there were a calcium carbide factory, the orders would flow in endlessly."

After talking about the factory, Lin Si pondered for a moment and decided to remind Liang Nian not to overwork.

After all, she had heard more than once from Wugengtian that Liang Nian always worked in the yamen until very late before returning home.

Not only does he get home late, but he also comes to bed the earliest the next day. This means his sleep time is definitely less than eight hours.

"Minister Liang, you must work in moderation and avoid overworking yourself, especially when it comes to sleep."

Liang Nian: "Your Majesty, don't worry. I've been sleeping very little since I was a child. I only need a few hours of sleep to feel energetic. My mother is the same. I guess it's hereditary."

Lin Si’s inner thoughts: Two highly energetic and naturally successful people, I admire them so much.

"When you have time, go to Zhu Shixi and ask her to take your pulse. But remember to make an appointment in advance. She's been working on penicillin lately, so she's not always in the Imperial Hospital."

Liang Nian nodded. "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I wonder how Zhu Ling's research on penicillin is progressing. If such a life-saving miracle drug could truly be developed, even if the chances were only 50%, it could save countless lives."

*

Zhu Shixi has always had a wish in his heart, which is to be able to produce the miracle drug penicillin in his lifetime.

But Zhu Shixi also knew that under the current technical conditions, even if a very complicated and tedious procedure was completed, impurities in the solution could not be avoided, and the extracted product could not be considered penicillin. At most, it was a penicillin solution with impurities.

In ancient times, all serious bacterial infections were equivalent to a death sentence. Without penicillin, no matter how advanced the medical skills were, they could not be saved.

Over the years, many people have died due to serious bacterial infections.

Since then, Zhu Shixi always thought that it would be great if there was penicillin. Even a 50% chance of survival would be better than no chance of survival at all.

So, after the glassware was fired, Zhu Shixi began to research penicillin.

Of course, this research cannot be completed by Zhu Shixi alone. The doctors from the Imperial Hospital and her disciples must all participate.

Even students from Anjing University were lucky enough to be able to attend the class.

Lin Si certainly supports this 100%. If a country wants to develop, it must rely on the development of medicine.

Zhu Shixi has not changed much from the beginning. After all, in all these years, Lin Si has never let her do anything other than devoting herself to studying medicine, curing diseases and saving lives, and teaching students.

Zhu Shixi ate a small cake, his eyes twinkling. "Your Majesty, rest assured. I will definitely live up to your trust and develop penicillin."

Zhu Shixi used to suffer from a lack of tools, but now he has glassware and rubber hoses.

With these two things, the success rate is much higher than before.

Lin Si specially approved a research institute for Zhu Shixi to develop penicillin.

Zhu Shixi started tapping rubber and began research after making rubber hoses. It has been several months now.

Researchers including Zhu Shixi were cautious and eager at the beginning.

After all, the entire process of extracting penicillin is very complicated. Just the step of breeding mold requires the use of several things, such as steamed buns, fruits, vegetables, etc.

While waiting for these things to grow blue mold, you also need to prepare the bacterial culture medium.

This step was for all the students of Anjing Academy to watch and participate. Although we always talked about germs and bacteria in class, they had never seen them with their own eyes and only learned an abstract concept.

Now, letting them participate in bacterial culture media is also a way for them to see the entities of bacteria and pathogens with their own eyes.

Currently, only one type of bacteria is selected in the culture medium, Staphylococcus aureus, which is the most common pyogenic bacteria.

The students used the four-zone streak method, which involves dividing the bacteria at varying angles with a clean inoculating loop. This method allows them to obtain pure bacterial communities.

When the students saw the bacterial colors gradually appearing in the bacterial culture medium, they still felt a sense of magic.

I always thought that bacteria were invisible and intangible, but now I can see the "real" ones with my own eyes, and cultivate them with my own hands. I can't help but sigh at the greatness of medicine.

Cultivating the bacterial culture medium is the simplest step in the entire experiment.

As for the rest, Zhu Shixi and her disciples took care of it themselves.

Tang Xing just got married last year. He has been working in the laboratory day and night to make penicillin. Fortunately, Chen Wanxian doesn't mind and expresses her understanding.

Tang Xing was very moved and said that when penicillin really succeeded, he would take a vacation and stay at home to spend time with her.

Chen Wanxuan really understood. Firstly, she knew that Tang Xing was doing practical things.

As for the second reason, of course she discovered that there was new progress between Mo Jinglian and Yin Sheng!

Chen Wanxuan was so excited that she almost ran around the house. Of course, she didn't mind whether Tang Xing came home or not.

Tang Xing and his disciples all knew that it was impossible to succeed in one go, but after failing so many times, they really lost confidence.

The culture medium is filtered, oil is added and stirred, allowing the solution to separate into three layers. Wood ash is added to remove impurities, the solution is washed with distilled water, and then filtered with acidic and alkaline water. The process can be summarized in just a few dozen words, and it seems simple.

But it doesn’t work like that in practice.

The filtering step alone is very difficult. The people in the laboratory tried many times before finally finding a suitable filtering method. There should not be too much cotton, and a layer of fine gauze must be added underneath to achieve the best filtering effect.

As for the subsequent step of adding wood ash to remove impurities, this is the step that fails the most. The solution is either blocked and cannot flow down, or it has no effect at all in removing impurities.

There are so many broken rubber hoses in the laboratory.

But the people in the laboratory did not give up.

Last month, Bu Yi wrote a letter to his family, saying that he was doing something very important, which, if successful, could save many lives.

The letter was filled with pride.

Zhu Shixi comes to the laboratory every day. Now, in the experimental process, the disciples she first accepted have all become proficient in it, and Zhu Shixi has also personally participated in it countless times.

But the probability of failure is still very high, and there are many reasons for this.

Lin Si plans to take some time to visit Zhu Shixi in the laboratory.

After all, the last time Zhu Shixi took her pulse, Lin Si could feel that she seemed to be a little sad.

Zhu Shixi was indeed a little melancholy, and Feng Ling could see that.

But Feng Ling didn't know anything about penicillin. She only knew that Zhu Shixi had failed in making something.

Feng Ling comforted her while his mouth was full of fried chicken. "Don't worry, my lady. When you do something many times, it becomes a kind of accumulation. Back then, I was practicing swordsmanship, and my senior brother was carving mechanisms. At first, neither of us could do it well, but after I practiced swordsmanship enough times, and my senior brother carved countless broken mechanisms, we finally succeeded! Now that I think about it, it must be because we accumulated experience from countless failures, so we incorporated the experience of the previous failure into our next attempt, and each time we did it, we were able to do better. As long as we persist, we will definitely succeed."

Zhu Shixi blinked her large, flickering eyes. "Madam Feng is right."

Lin Si also wanted to go and see how Zhu Shixi's experiment was going. In addition to the experiment, he also had to give her and the people in the laboratory some advice so that they would not be upset because they could not make this thing.

Lin Ying saw Lin Si was about to go out and insisted on following him.

Lin Si arrived at the door of the laboratory, and Lin Ying followed behind him.

Lin Ying was curious about what exactly this lab was researching. "Is this lab really researching a miracle drug?"

Lin Si replied: "Of course, otherwise why would a genius like Zhu Lingzhe be so eager to make it."

Zhu Shixi was doing experiments inside, and Bu Yi came out to greet Lin Si.

"Your Majesty, the Commander is conducting experiments inside. Do you want me to call her out?"

Lin Si shook his head. "It's okay. You've all been working hard lately, but don't put too much pressure on yourself. This item isn't easy to come by."

Bu Yi smiled. "We all know that, but we've failed so many times that we always have that burning desire in our hearts, thinking maybe we'll succeed next time."

Lin Si didn't have to wait long before Zhu Shixi walked out of the laboratory. She was a little surprised when she saw Lin Si.

"Your Majesty, why are you here?"

Zhu Shixi walked up to Lin Si and said, "Your Majesty, you have arrived at the perfect time. We have conducted two sets of experiments today. For some reason, everyone feels that these two sets of experiments have been the smoothest and most successful so far. Maybe this time we will succeed!"

Lin Si wanted to smile: "It seems that I am lucky."

The others immediately echoed, "We are lucky that His Majesty came in person today. I'm sure we will succeed."

Ah Qing calculated the time and said, "The first batch of experiments we did this morning should now show results in the bacterial culture medium."

Everyone was a little nervous, including Lin Si.

If this is really successful, it will definitely be a major breakthrough in Da'an's medical level.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for Ah Qing and Zhu Shixi to go in and check.

Lin Si ordered Lin Ying to peek through the crack in the door.

Lin Ying looked through the crack in the door and saw many flat round glass plates of different sizes, as well as some strange glassware, connected to what should be rubber tubes.

Zhu Shixi and Lin Aqing picked up the glass culture medium and their eyes widened involuntarily.

The colonies in the bacterial culture medium disappeared in a circle.

Ah Qing rubbed his eyes and patted his face to make sure he was not hallucinating.

Zhu Shixi put down a glass culture medium and went to look at the next one.

They will try about twenty bacterial culture media for each batch of solution to avoid uneven solutions.

All the colonies in these twenty culture media disappeared in a circle.

This means they succeeded!

Although Lin Ying didn't know what success meant, she had experience as a human being in her previous life. Judging from the looks of these two people, they must be so happy that their brains have crashed.

So Lin Ying ran to Lin Si and everyone in the laboratory with his short legs, panting.

"Your Majesty, I think it was successful."