Who Really Discovered Penicillin?

Who really discovered penicillin? In 1941, a young doctor in Oxford cycled to the laboratory every evening with a patient's urine, because the new drug in it was too scarce to waste. Penicillin had been found in London twelve years earlier. This is the story of why it took so long: a plate that couldn't have worked the way its discoverer told it, a rabbit that may have made him doubt it, eight mice, a policeman, a melon from Peoria, and the one name that took almost all the fame. Chapters 0:00 Penicillin supply exhausted 1:25 Mould juice 4:16 The plate that shouldn't have worked 7:16 Why it stalled 9:37 Eight mice and a policeman 15:12 Corn, milk and a melon 17:52 One name Sources Primary A. Fleming, "On the antibacterial action of cultures of a penicillium...", British Journal of Experimental Pathology 10 (1929) 226-236 (facsimile: Bulletin of the WHO 79 (2001) 780-790) A. Fleming, "Penicillin", Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1945; G. Liljestrand, presentation speech; the Nobel nomination archive E. Chain, H. W. Florey et al., "Penicillin as a chemotherapeutic agent", The Lancet, 24 August 1940, 226-228 E. P. Abraham and E. Chain, "An enzyme from bacteria able to destroy penicillin", Nature 146 (28 December 1940) 837 E. P. Abraham, E. Chain, C. M. Fletcher et al., "Further observations on penicillin", The Lancet, 16 August 1941, 177-189 C. M. Fletcher, interview with M. Blythe, 1984 (Royal College of Physicians and Oxford Brookes University, MSVA 1) R. D. Coghill, The Background of Penicillin Production (US Department of Agriculture, 1944); USDA radio script "Penicillin: life-saving drug" (22 November 1944) K. B. Raper and D. F. Alexander, "Penicillin: V. Mycological aspects of penicillin production", Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 61 (1945); K. B. Raper and C. Thom, A Manual of the Penicillia (1949) A. J. Moyer, US patents 2,442,141, 2,443,989 and 2,476,107 Sir Almroth Wright to The Times, 28 August 1942 (printed 31 August) Scholarly R. Hare, "New light on the history of penicillin", Medical History 26 (1982) 1-24; and Medical History 27 (1983) 347-372 A. Maurois, The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming (1959) G. Macfarlane, Howard Florey (1979), as quoted by P. B. Medawar, London Review of Books, 20 December 1979 M. Wainwright and H. T. Swan, "C. G. Paine and the earliest surviving clinical records of penicillin therapy", Medical History 30 (1986) 42-56 L. Colebrook, M. Kenny et al., The Lancet, 6 June 1936 N. G. Heatley, Medical History 28 (1984); USDA ARS, "The Enduring Mystery of 'Moldy Mary'" M. Lobanovska and G. Pilla, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 90 (2017); H. Cho et al., Cell 159 (2014); H. F. Chambers, Emerging Infectious Diseases 7 (2001); H. F. Chambers and F. R. DeLeo, Nature Reviews Microbiology 7 (2009) H. Harris, "The Discovery of Penicillin", Sir William Dunn School of Pathology; Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report 1941; Nobel Prize biographies of Fleming, Florey and Chain (nobelprize.org) GBD 2021 Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators, The Lancet 404 (2024) 1199-1226 Corrections None so far. Corrections will be listed here. Credits Music from Free To Use Source: https://freetouse.com/music Dark Heart by Walen Power of Nature by Orchestronika Wandering Away by Aetheric Soft Structure by Zolvi Dawn by Alegend Careful by Pufino Destiny by Alegend Blue Skies by Alegend Infinity by Alegend Spiral of Time by Guillermo Guareschi Infinity by Zambolino Deep Sadness by Aeris Farewell by Guillermo Guareschi and from Pixabay Sound effects from freesound.org: mmaruska Photographs (public domain): Imperial War Museums (D 17801, D 17802, D 17803, D 17806, D 16958, D 16959, D 16964, D 16970, B 14297, TR 1458, TR 1468); USDA Agricultural Research Service; US National Archives; Karolinska Institutet (the Nobel ceremony, 1945); Howard Florey by Julian Smith Portrait (public domain): Alexander Fleming by Ethel Gabain, 1944 (Imperial War Museums, Art.IWM ART LD 4217) Pictures (CC BY 4.0): Wellcome Collection (L0000655, L0012314, L0015392, L0015393, L0023579, L0032175) Pictures (public domain): Wellcome Collection (St Mary's Hospital, 38689i and 38692i; the Pfizer leaflet, b33427422) Photograph (CC0): the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, by Jonas Magnus Lystad (2021) Pages (public domain): Fleming (1929), via archive.org; R. D. Coghill (USDA, 1944)