Fleming, Sir Alexander

Fleming, Sir Alexander (1881-1955), medical scientist, b. Loudoun, Ayrshire, Scotland.

In 1928 Dr. Fleming was working at St. Mary's Hospital in London.

He was growing some germs of the common cold on plates covered with jelly. One day, after returning from vacation, he found a patch of mould on one plate and noticed that the germs around the mould had been killed. The mould was called penicillium. Fleming called the substance in it which killed the germs 'penicillin'.

By experiments, he discovered that it would cure diseases. But he was unable to extract it from the mould.

Ten years later, Dr. Howard Florey and Dr. Ernest Chain went on with Fleming's work and produced penicillin.

People called it the 'miracle drug' because some of its cures seemed like miracles.

Fleming, Florey and Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.

See Kevin Brown Penicillin Man