Alexander Fleming
Alexander
Fleming was born in a remote, rural part of Scotland. He was the seventh of eight
siblings and half-siblings. His family worked on a farm.
Fleming chose to go to study medicine at St. Mary's hospital and in 1905 he trained as a surgeon. Then he switched to studying bacteria, because if he took a job as a surgeon, he would have to leave St. Mary's. As a result, he began to work with a team of people who investigated inoculation, to help prevent people from catching diseases. |
In
1909 a new injection was invented (not by Fleming), but he learned how to give
it to people by using an injection into a vein. This was a very rare skill in
those days.
When World War I broke out, most of the staff went to France to set up a battlefield hospital lab. Here they found infections that were so dangerous that soldiers quickly died from them, yet they were still simple infections. Fleming felt that there must be a chemical that could help fight microbe infection, even in wounds that had been caused by exploding bombs.
Back in St. Mary's lab in the 1920s, Fleming searched for an effective antiseptic to clean wounds. He discovered lysozyme, a chemical that is found in tears. It could kill some bacteria, but did not work against the strongest infections. Fleming kept looking. He had so much going on in his lab that it was often in a jumble. This chaos proved very fortunate…
In 1928 he was straightening up a pile of petri dishes where he had been growing bacteria, but which had been piled in the sink. He opened each one and examined it before tossing it into the cleaning solution. One made him stop and take a closer look: some mould was growing on one of the dishes. This was not surprising; however, what was surprising was that all around where the mould had grown, the bacteria had been killed.
Fleming took a sample of the mould. He found that it was a type of mould called penicillin. He had discovered a type of mould that would kill bacteria! Fleming presented his findings in 1929, but no one was very interested. However, when World War II began, people became more interested in penicillin, and they began to give penicillin to people who were sick due to infections caused by bacteria. Since then, millions of lives have been saved by using penicillin as a medicine.
Glossary
infection - a disease caused by micro-organisms
inoculation - to introduce a germ, usually a weak type, into someone's body in order to protect them from it later
petri dishes – small plastic dishes on which microbes are grown in laboratories.
When World War I broke out, most of the staff went to France to set up a battlefield hospital lab. Here they found infections that were so dangerous that soldiers quickly died from them, yet they were still simple infections. Fleming felt that there must be a chemical that could help fight microbe infection, even in wounds that had been caused by exploding bombs.
Back in St. Mary's lab in the 1920s, Fleming searched for an effective antiseptic to clean wounds. He discovered lysozyme, a chemical that is found in tears. It could kill some bacteria, but did not work against the strongest infections. Fleming kept looking. He had so much going on in his lab that it was often in a jumble. This chaos proved very fortunate…
In 1928 he was straightening up a pile of petri dishes where he had been growing bacteria, but which had been piled in the sink. He opened each one and examined it before tossing it into the cleaning solution. One made him stop and take a closer look: some mould was growing on one of the dishes. This was not surprising; however, what was surprising was that all around where the mould had grown, the bacteria had been killed.
Fleming took a sample of the mould. He found that it was a type of mould called penicillin. He had discovered a type of mould that would kill bacteria! Fleming presented his findings in 1929, but no one was very interested. However, when World War II began, people became more interested in penicillin, and they began to give penicillin to people who were sick due to infections caused by bacteria. Since then, millions of lives have been saved by using penicillin as a medicine.
Glossary
infection - a disease caused by micro-organisms
inoculation - to introduce a germ, usually a weak type, into someone's body in order to protect them from it later
petri dishes – small plastic dishes on which microbes are grown in laboratories.