The Dirty Dish That Saved 200 Million Lives

In 1928, Alexander Fleming came back from holiday to a messy lab and a mouldy dish. That accident became penicillin — but for ten years nobody cared, and the first patient to receive it still died. This is the real story. CHAPTERS 0:00 The mouldy dish 0:52 A world without antibiotics 2:16 The dirty dish 4:13 Ten years of silence 5:25 Bedpans and bathtubs 7:34 The secret journey to America 10:03 Fleming's warning Origin Files tells the hidden beginnings behind the world's greatest inventions, companies and ideas — using real archival photographs. Subscribe for a new file every week. MUSIC • "Discovery Hit" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 — creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ • "Heartbreaking" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 — creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ • "Lost Frontier" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 — creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ • "Majestic Hills" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 — creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ • "Night Vigil" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 — creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ • "Sad Trio" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 — creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ • "Unanswered Questions" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 — creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Archival images: public domain and Creative Commons works via Wikimedia Commons. Full photo credits (authors + licences) are in the pinned comment.