Alexander Fleming

The greatest achievement of the British science in the XX century was the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming. It started the era of antibiotics. It was one of the main reasons which increased the length of the human life.[1]

Fleming was born in Scotland in the place of swamps and moorlands. He was the 8-th child in the family of a farmer. When he was 5 he began attending school together with his senior brothers and sisters. The way passed through the moorlands. If the weather was cold their mother used to give each child two potatoes, so that they could warm their hands during the way. On coming to school the children ate the potatoes. Fleming wrote further that the long and monotone way taught him observing.

At the age of 13 he moved to London to his cousin who was going to become a doctor. Fleming tried many jobs including service in the Scottish battlement guarding the Buckingham Palace of the Queen. Then he became the medical student of London University. He wasn’t almost preparing for exams; he was going to enter the University many years after school. Nevertheless he passed his exams best of all thanks to the extremely original answers, appreciated by the commission. For the main part of his life Fleming worked in the laboratory of St Mary’s hospital. And his discovery happened just there in 1928.

The legend names two reasons of Fleming’s discovery: his untidiness (неаккуратность) and his luck. The biologists use the cups with germ cultures. The other researchers in the laboratory washed the cups after the work. But Fleming didn’t. He hadn’t been washing the cups for 2 or 3 weeks till his table was covered with 40 – 50 dirty cups. Then he had nothing to do except washing. Once he went for a two-weak leave. He hadn’t washed anything before. His table stayed untidy. When he came back he found an unusual mould (плесень) in one of the cups. It destroyed the gems which had been put into the cup before. The mould almost dissolved (растворила) them.

Fleming used the microscope and determined the kind of the mould. It was called “Penicillium notatum” in Latin, which means “the brushes of nuts”.

The kind of the mould was very rare. It was unclear where it had appeared from. It is still being unclear. Somebody tells it to flow through the window. Somebody tells it to appear from the neighbor laboratory.

There was an extra condition which caused the discovery: the whims (капризы) of London weather. Fleming was absent for a long on his holidays. It grew colder in London, and the cold weather made good conditions for the growth of the mould. Then it grew warmer, and the warm weather made good conditions for the growth of germs. The unique combination of the rare mould and the changeable weather had caused the discovery.

But the biographers of Fleming don’t agree with the version that it was an occasional luck. They tell another reason for his untidy table. It was his scientific philosophy. He believed that researcher should be a very intent (пристальный), very attentive observer. He shouldn’t only follow his plans, but also be ready for all unexpected phenomena. That’s why he kept his table untidy. He thought that something unexpected could grow once in his dirty cups. And before washing them he used to look for something interesting. The discovery of penicillin was not only occasional. It came to the researcher who had deserved the result.

The observations showed that the mould of penicillin destroys germs but doesn’t do any harm for people. The next problem was to select the pure acting substance (выделить действующее вещество) from the mould in order to bring it into the blood of ill man. Fleming couldn’t do it himself, because he was not a biochemist. He had to find biochemists ready to do it. But he had failed.

The reason was that the scientists had known the similar substances for a long period. The substances of this kind destroyed germs but damaged people at the same time. That’s why nobody believed Fleming and wanted to work with him.

Fleming was very unhappy then. He felt that he had made a great discovery but nobody supported him. He went in for his hobby. He took up germ painting (занялся микробной живописью). He painted with the germ colonies of different colours. The pictures didn’t live long. In some time germs used to move and the outlines of the objects lost their shape.

Many years passed. Fleming had become a Noble prize winner and once the Queen visited his laboratory. Just for her visit Fleming painted the British flag with germs. But the Queen didn’t like it. She considered germs not to be the best material for the British flag.

Only in ten years after the discovery the chemists got interested in it. They worked in Oxford. Their names were Chain and Flory. The author of the discovery was forgotten. When Fleming learnt about the work of the chemists he went to Oxford. Chain and Flory were surprised very much. They thought Fleming had died long ago.

The pure substance of penicillin was selected. Soon World War II started. Britain was waiting for the German invasion. The scientists decided to save penicillin at any circumstances. They saturated (пропитали) their clothes with the penicillin mould. Even if one of them survived, he could grow the mould.

The Germans didn’t invade. But the new problem had appeared. The businessmen, the pharmaceutical industry didn’t want to start the production of the new medicine. Chain and Flory managed to persuade the American government. It made a unique step. Nine plants were built by the government and presented to the private businessmen on the condition that they would produce penicillin. Since 1943 penicillin was used at the fronts. It saved millions of lives. Each 10^th German wounded solder perished of gangrene and in the alliance army almost none.

There was one more result of the Fleming’s discovery. Antibiotics brought a great profit to their produces. This money gave possibilities for the other researches and a lot of synthetic medicines were elaborated.

So it may be told that Alexander Fleming was not only father of penicillin and antibiotics but also father of modern pharmaceutical industry.

Fleming together with Chain and Flory became Noble prize winners in 1945. Fleming was buried in Westminster Abby near Newton. There are two flowers depicted on his tomb: thistle – the emblem of Scotland and lily – the emblem of St. Mary hospital, where he had worked through all his life.