Alexander+Flemming+and+Penicillin

Alexander Flemming In 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming made a chance discovery from an already discarded, contaminated Petri dish. The mold that had contaminated the experiment turned out to contain a powerful antibiotic, penicillin. However, though Fleming was credited with the discovery, it was over a decade before someone else turned penicillin into a miracle drug for the 20th century.  In 1928 Alexander Fleming worked at St. Mary’s Hospital. After just returning from his vacation with his family. Before he left, Fleming had piles of Petri dishes to the side of his work bench, so Stuart R. Craddock could use while he is away.  When Fleming came back from vacation he was sorting through the dishes to determine which ones to save or not. During the process Fleming noticed many of the dishes had been contaminated. Fleming had placed each and every one of the contaminated dishes in a tray of Lysol.  Most of Fleming’s work was focusing on a search for a “wonder drug”. Bacteria had been around since Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first described it in 1683. It wasn’t until late nineteen century that Louis Pasteur confirmed that bacteria caused diseases. However even though they had this knowledge, no one had yet been able to find anything that would kill harmful bacteria, but also not harm the human body.  In 1922, Fleming made an important discovery, lysozyme. While working with some of the bacteria Fleming’s nose leaked, dropping some mucus onto the dish. They bacteria then began to disappear. Fleming had discovered a natural substance found in nasal mucus and tears, that help your body fight off germs. Fleming now realized that he had found a substance that could fight off the bacteria but not harm the human body.  In 1928, sorting through the piles of dishes he had, Fleming’s former lab assistant, D. Merlin Pryce stopped by to visit with Fleming. Fleming took the opportunity to tell his former lab partner about the amount of extra work he had to do since he transferred from his lab. To demonstrate Fleming took out piles of plates he put in his Lysol tray, and pulled out many that stayed safely above the Lysol. If there had not been so many each would have been completely in Lysol, killing the bacteria to clean the plates so they can be reused.  Picking up one dish in particular to show Pryce, Fleming then noticed something strange about it. While he was gone the mold had grown on the dish. The mold was not strange, but it had killed the stuff that had been growing in the dish. Fleming realized this mold had potential. Fleming had spent several weeks trying to figure out the particular substance that had killed the bacteria. After discussing with a mold expert, C.J. La Touche who had his office below Fleming’s. They then determined that the mold to be a penicillium mold. Fleming called an active antibacterial agent in the mold penicillin.  “But where did the mold come from?” La Touche had been collecting a sampling of molds for John Freeman. Who was researching asthma, and it is likely that some floated up to Fleming’s lab.  Fleming continued numerous experiments to determine the effect of the molds on other harmful bacteria. The mold killed large numbers of them. Fleming then tested and found the mold to be non toxic.  “Could this be the wonder drug”? To Fleming it was not, he saw the potential. Fleming was not a chemist and was not able to isolate the active bacteria, and was not able to keep the element active long. In 1929, Fleming wrote a paper on what he found.  Twelve years later in 1940, the second year of World War II, two scientists at Oxford University were researching projects bacteriology that could possibly be continued with chemistry. Howard Florey and Ernst Chain began to work with penicillin. //__**Science is**__// He never gave up and he learned from his mistakes. He gave it his and in the end we now have a pill that helps us with rashes and many others. By: Courtney Waters