At the beginning of the 20th century, despite huge jump in the field of medicine, a large number of diseases there were trudnoizlechima or did not respond to treatment at all. But when the antibiotic penicillin was open, everything changed to the best. In decades millions of human lives were saved.
Alexander Fleming
This Scottish scientist discovered penicillin. Was born on August 6, 1881. After leaving school graduated from Royal college of surgeons then remained to work there. After the entry of England in World War I, became the captain of military hospital of Royal army. After war worked on allocation of causative agents of infectious diseases and also on methods of fight against them.
History of discovery of penicillin
The mold was the most awful enemy of Fleming in his laboratory. A usual gray-green mold which strikes walls and corners of badly aired and damp rooms. Not once Fleming lifted a cover of a bowl Understand, and then with disappointment noticed that the cultures of streptococci which are grown up by him are covered with a mold layer. It was worth leaving everything at several o'clock a bowl with biomaterial in laboratory as at once the nutritious layer on which bacteria grew became covered by a mold. As soon as the scientist did not fight against it, everything was vain. But once, on one of mouldy bowls, he noticed a strange thing. Around colony of bacteria the small high temple was formed. It had an impression that bacteria simply could not breed in mouldy places.
The antibacterial effect of a mold was known in ancient times. The first mentions of use of a mold for treatment of purulent diseases were mentioned in Avicenna's works.
Discovery of penicillin
Having kept a "strange" mold, Fleming grew up from it the whole colony. As showed its researches, streptococci and staphylococcus could not develop in the presence of this mold. Making before various experiments, Fleming drew a conclusion that under the influence of some bacteria others perish. He called this phenomenon an antibiosis. He did not doubt that in a case with a mold, it met the antibiosis phenomenon personally. After the careful researches, it at last managed to emit antimicrobial medicine from a mold. Fleming called substance penicillin in honor of the Latin name of a type of a mold from which it also allocated it. Thus, in 1929, in dark laboratory of hospital Maria's Saint was born everything the known penicillin.
In 1945 Alexander Fleming and also scientists who arranged industrial production of penicillin, Howard Frey and Ernest Cheyn, were conferred the Nobel Prize.
Industrial production of medicine
Fleming's attempts to arrange industrial production of penicillin were vain. Only in 1939 two Oxford scientists – Howard Frey and Ernest Cheyn, after several years of work could make significant progress. They received several grams of crystal penicillin then they began the first tests. 15 summer boy having blood poisoning was the first person to whom saved life by means of penicillin introduction.