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The Crown Prince of France - Chapter 104
🕑 Added 2025-03-27 20:04:03 +0000 UTCChapter 104: The Strongest Biologist in France
Joseph felt somewhat embarrassed by Besançon's praise, "Hmm, wisdom of public restrooms, is it?"
However, he could understand, as without his intervention, Paris would not see its first public restroom for another half-century.
He continued, "Oh, and trash bins. On the main streets of Paris, we should build a large stone bin every 200 to 300 feet, so pedestrians can dispose of their trash in them."
Besançon nodded constantly, then suddenly thought of a problem and hurriedly said, "Your Highness, building these public restrooms and trash bins will cost a lot of money, and it will require a number of people to maintain them afterward."
As expected of the police commissioner, he immediately thought deeply about the issue. Joseph nodded, "The construction costs can be funded by the treasury, and the management can be assigned to your 'Daily Affairs Team.'"
"Mm, the waste from the public restrooms can be transported away and used as fertilizer, which should be something that someone would willingly do. The 'Daily Affairs Team' would only need to clean it, and it should be manageable."
Besançon hesitated slightly, "Your Highness, the citizens may not cooperate too much..."
"Post some announcements on the streets, and I will also have the newspapers help promote it," Joseph thought for a moment and said, "We can call it the 'Beautiful Paris' movement."
"Ah, of course, the police will need to oversee it. Anyone who litters or doesn't use the restrooms properly should be reminded or warned, and those who refuse to reform can be forced to clean the restrooms."
After Besançon left, Joseph gazed at the empty street outside the window and murmured, "Or we could lay down some wooden tracks and develop urban rail transit. Hmm, with wooden tracks, a two-horse carriage should be able to carry more than ten people. It would also let the craftsmen get familiar with track-laying technology, which will be useful in the future.
"Sigh, but it all requires money... Why is France so poor?"
A voice came from outside the door, "Your Highness, Count Lamarck has arrived."
"Oh?" Joseph was somewhat surprised and hurriedly said, "Please show him in."
The door opened, and Lamarck entered with a beaming smile, bowing as he greeted, "Your Highness, I went to Versailles Palace to find you, and they said you had moved here, so I came to see you. I'm relieved to see you're in good health."
"Please, have a seat." Joseph nodded in return. "I owe it to Dr. Perna, who often helps check on me."
"That’s her duty," Lamarck smiled and nodded, then pulled out a glass bottle, "Look, this is the latest refined fertility phenol, it's already very pure."
Joseph took the small bottle and saw that it contained a fine yellow powder.
"Your technique is truly superb."
"Oh, this is all thanks to the constant temperature room you had built," Lamarck’s eyes fixed on Joseph for a moment, seemingly reminding him of something.
"The constant temperature room has been completed?" Joseph asked in surprise.
"Yes, Your Highness. Actually, we failed once in the middle, but Mr. Larsen and I invited the palace craftsmen to help, and we finally got it done. It can now maintain a temperature difference of no more than 5°C, which is a great help for refining fertility phenol."
He looked at Joseph expectantly, "So..."
"?"
Lamarck grew anxious and said directly, "Your Highness, you mentioned that with the constant temperature room, we could produce a medicine capable of curing pneumonia, puerperal fever, the Black Death, and other fatal diseases. Have you forgotten?"
"Oh, yes, that’s right." Joseph suddenly realized. It turned out that Lamarck was here for penicillin. He had been so busy recently that he had completely forgotten about it...
He hurriedly nodded, "Then, I will visit the pharmacy workshop tomorrow and tell you how to make it."
Lamarck stood up excitedly, pressing his chest, "This is wonderful! Your Highness, if this medicine can be successfully made, it will save countless lives!"
Joseph solemnly reminded him, "Doctor Lamarck, this medicine is very important, it must be kept absolutely secret! Of course, I will also send the guard to protect the pharmacy workshop."
"Rest assured, I will not leak a word to anyone!"
The next morning, Lamarck could hardly wait to arrive at the Industrial Planning Bureau, clearly having left before dawn.
Joseph quickly ate breakfast and was nearly dragged into the carriage by him.
He had been dealing with food procurement issues all night, and now his mind was still filled with thoughts of wheat and bread... There was no other choice, the time he had to prepare was really short.
While the carriage bumped along, Joseph suddenly thought that the person sitting opposite him was France’s most skilled biologist, and perhaps he would have some ideas: "Count Lamarck, is there any way to prevent crops from being destroyed by hail? Oh, hail this big."
He raised his fist as he spoke.
Lamarck furrowed his brow, "I'm afraid that's impossible, Your Highness. With hail like that, even small trees could be damaged."
Joseph sighed helplessly, but then he heard Lamarck continue, "Unless they are potatoes, then there might still be some harvest left."
Joseph was stunned, his eyes gradually brightening.
Right! Why hadn’t he thought of that? The main part of a potato grows underground, and even though it wasn’t potato harvest season yet in July, it would have grown to 70-80% by now.
This was much better than having all the wheat destroyed!
Of course, there was also the drought this year, so potato yields wouldn’t be great either, but promoting potatoes across France immediately would help alleviate the famine situation to some extent.
Lamarck then shook his head, "But the French don’t eat them."
Joseph asked, "Why do you say that? I often see mashed potatoes and similar foods at Versailles Palace."
Lamarck laughed, "Only the nobility eat them, and even then, only in Paris."
"Ah?"
"Don’t you know?" Lamarck shrugged, "In the past, someone ate potatoes with sprouts and got poisoned, so rumors started spreading that potatoes were poisonous.
"Later, some people even claimed that potatoes were from the 'devils of the earth.' Because they grow underground, they called them 'devil apples,' believing them to be unlucky and that eating them would bring misfortune.
"As the rumors spread, people even said that eating potatoes could cause strokes, lung disease, or leprosy.
"Oh, intelligent people know this is all nonsense, but ordinary citizens believe it. When there was a famine in Naples, people there would rather starve to death than eat potatoes."
Joseph asked, "But why don’t the nobility care?"
Dr. Lamarck replied, "It’s all thanks to the great Queen. Doctor Parmentier believed potatoes were a good food source and recommended them to the royal family.
"Her Majesty loved the potato flowers, wore them in her chest, and even tried the taste of potatoes. As you know, the nobility at Versailles always like to imitate the Queen’s actions."
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