Download Alexander_Fleming

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Harry Chest
Mr. Jourdeans
English 9—7th Hour
21 December 2012
Alexander Fleming
Revolutionizing Medicine
Without antibiotics, disease and illness would be an everyday concern. Because of
Alexander Fleming, the first antibiotic was discovered. Alexander Fleming's personal
experiences led to his influential discoveries that revolutionized medicine. This important
discovery started a new age of medicine (Davis 232).
Alexander Fleming was born in Lochfield, Scotland on August 6, 1881 within the
county of Ayrshire (Brieger 388; “Fleming, Alexander” 329). His parents were Hugh
Fleming and Grace (Morton) Fleming, Hugh’s second wife. His father was a farmer.
Alexander was the third of his mother’s children and the seventh of his father’s
(“Fleming, Alexander” 329). Fleming had two stepbrothers and two stepsisters, all from
his father’s first marriage (Oakes 236). His father died when he was seven. Alex was left
to care for the farm with his half brother, Thomas, and his mother. (“Fleming, Alexander”
329).
Alexander received his education from many schools throughout his lifetime. He
went to the small moorland school close to his house. Later, he went to the Kilmarnock
Academy. Early in life, he learned how to watch nature closely (“Fleming, Alexander”
329). After his basic schooling, when Alex was thirteen, he went to London to join his
brothers. He worked as a clerk and went to classes at Regent Street Polytechnic (Brieger
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388; “Fleming, Alexander” 329). A war between the British and the Boers broke out in
1899 when Alex was 18 years old. In 1900 Fleming joined the London Scottish Regiment
(“Fleming, Alexander” 329). Fleming inherited 250 pounds one year later, and with
Thomas’s advice used the money to enter medical school. Because he had some of the
highest grades in all of England, Alex was awarded with a scholarship to St. Mary’s
Hospital Medical School. He learned about surgery there, and in 1906 Fleming graduated
from St. Mary’s and was accepted into the Royal College of Surgeons by passing an
exam. However, after graduation Fleming stayed at St. Mary’s to work with Professor
Almroth E. Wright in his laboratory of pathology as a junior assistant (“Fleming,
Alexander” 329).
Wright’s laboratory provided Fleming with many opportunities. Arsphenamine
(Salvarsan) was discovered in 1910 by Paul Ehrlich, a German scientist. Salvarsan is a
drug that works against syphilis (“Fleming, Sir Alexander”). This lab was one of the first
few to get samples of Salvarsan for experiments and testing in 1908 (“Fleming,
Alexander” 329). Fleming was given the Gold Medal of the university in 1908 (Oakes
236). He also earned an M.S. and a B.S. from London University in 1908 and entered the
Royal College of Surgeons in 1909 (“Fleming, Alexander” 329).
From 1914 to 1918, Fleming studied infections in wounds alongside Wright in
World War I (Brieger 388). Fleming served as a captain and experienced directly what
was happening in France (“Fleming, Alexander 329). According to Elizabeth H. Oakes,
“During the war Fleming served in the British Royal Army Medical Corps, stationed in
Boulogne, France. With Wright, he studied the treatment of infected wounds and found
that antiseptics, the treatment of the time, not only killed bacteria, but also killed white
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blood cells, thus inhibiting healing” (236). Without white blood cells the body’s defense
system will weaken and allow bacteria to continue living within the wound (“Fleming,
Alexander” 329). Because of this new found knowledge, Fleming concluded that carbolic
acid, an antiseptic that had been commonly used to treat open wounds, was harmful to
humans (Oakes 236). This interested him and he began searching for other ways of
fighting bacteria without harming the body and its natural defense system (Oakes 236).
Alexander continues researching nontoxic drugs to kill bacteria. When the war
ended in 1918, Wright and Fleming went back to St. Mary’s. Fleming was appointed
assistant director of the Inoculation Department in 1921 (Brieger 388; Oakes 237). In
1922, while having a cold, Alexander gathered mucus from his nose trying to separate the
organism causing the common cold. He was unsuccessful; however, he discovered
lysozyme, an antibody. Although it wasn’t harmful to humans, it failed to stop bacterial
infection (“Fleming, Alexander” 329; Oakes 237). It does not serve much of a purpose
for medical use, and works best against bacteria that do not cause an illness or disease
(“Fleming, Alexander” 329). In 1928, Fleming was named the Arris and Gale Lecturer at
the Royal College of Surgeons and chosen by London University as a professor of
bacteriology. His interest and curiosity to find a harmless bacteria killing drug continued.
In 1928, Fleming also discovered Penicillin (Oakes 237). He was known for
having untidy habits; he didn’t throw out his culture plates once he was finished with
them, and kept his samples after they were done culturing (“Fleming, Alexander” 330;
Oakes 236). The plates would create a pile on his bench. Eventually before disposing of
the cultures, Fleming would look at each culture plate to see if anything worth noting had
happened (“Fleming, Alexander” 330). Fleming had been studying Staphylococcus
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aureus bacteria (Oakes 236). Fleming then went on vacation and left this dish in his
laboratory (“Fleming, Alexander” 330). In one dish, he noticed a small ring surrounding
the mold without bacteria (Oakes 236). The mold was growing and Staphylococcus
bacteria was dissolving (“Fleming, Alexander” 330). “Penicillium” is what the mold was
identified as, and its contents the mold gave off, “penicillin” (Brieger 388). Fleming
discovered penicillin on the third of September, 1928 (“Fleming, Sir Alexander”). “The
mold that contaminated the culture was a very rare organism, ‘Penicillium,’ ultimately
traced to a laboratory on the floor below, where molds from the homes of asthma
sufferers were being grown and extracts of them made for desensitization.” Fleming’s
observations concluded many important points about penicillin. Fleming described it, and
wrote, “a powerful antibacterial substance…Penicillin is nontoxic to animals in enormous
doses…It is suggested that it may be an efficient antiseptic for application to, or injection
into, areas infected with penicillin-sensitive microbes” (“Fleming, Alexander” 330). It is
a nontoxic antibacterial substance that stops the spread of many harmful bacteria (Brieger
388). Fleming became discouraged when he received mixed results from his experiments
of applying the broth externally to patients. Penicillin was difficult to purify and unstable
(“Fleming, Alexander” 330). However, because Fleming wasn’t able to obtain the
substance in pure state, the importance of this discovery was not acknowledged
immediately (Oakes 237).
Sir Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Howard Walter Florey, chemists from Oxford
University, saw penicillin noted in a journal in 1940. They chose to test it as an antibody.
Penicillin was found to be very capable of inhibiting bacterial infection (Oakes 237).
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World War II lasted from 1939 to 1945. Penicillin was tested during the war due to Chain
and Florey’s work (Davis 232; “Fleming, Sir Alexander”).
Fleming, Florey, and Chain receive praise for their contributions of developing
Penicillin. In 1944 Fleming was knighted, and Fleming, Florey, and Chain received the
1945 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine “for the discovery of penicillin and its
curative effect in various infectious diseases,” stated by Goran Liljestrand from
Karolinska Institute during his presentation speech. “The story of penicillin is well
known throughout the world. It affords a splendid example of different scientific methods
cooperating for a great common purpose. Once again it has shown us the fundamental
importance of basic research.” “The phenomenal success of penicillin has led to an
intensive research into antibacterial products produced by molds and other lowly
members of the vegetable kingdom,” Fleming stated during his Nobel lecture. Fleming
amassed twenty-five honorary degrees, twenty-six medals, eighteen prizes, thirteen
decorations, and honorary membership in eighty-nine scientific academies and societies
throughout the next ten years (“Fleming, Alexander” 330).
When Wright died in 1947, Fleming became director of the Wright-Fleming
Institute (Brieger 388). Alexander’s wife, Sarah Marion McElroy, whom he had married
in 1915, died in 1949. Fleming married Amalia Coutsouris-Voureka in 1952. She was a
prior student of his and a bacteriologist. Fleming died of a heart attack at the age of
seventy-three three years later (“Fleming, Alexander”).
The discovery of penicillin has had a great impact on medicine, science, and
health. In “The Story of Penicillin” it is written that “The development of antibiotics is
one of the greatest medical advances of the 20th century. Penicillin inspired massive
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efforts to discover other new drugs that could conquer the many diseases still threatening
the world. Further antibiotics soon followed, including streptomycin, chloramphenicol,
the tetracylines, and erythromycin.” Because of antibiotics, the number of deaths and
diseases caused by infections has increased significantly. Infections that were once a
daily issue became treated safely and effectively (“The Story of Penicillin”).
Alexander Fleming had a huge impact on developing science and the practice of
medicine. His personal experiences sparked his interest, which led to his discovery of
penicillin. This finding led to the expansion of antibiotics that are now used daily to
prevent disease and infection by killing bacteria in a way that does not harm the human
body. Without Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, a wound would still be
deadly fear every day.
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Works Cited
Brieger, Gert H., M.D. "Fleming, Sir Alexander." Encyclopedia America. Vol. 11.
Danbury: Scholastic Library Publishing, Inc., 2006. Print. International Edition
11.
Davis, Audrey B. "Fleming, Sir Alexander." World Book. Vol. 7. 2008. Print.
"Fleming, Alexander." Nobel Prize Winners. Ed. Tyler Wasson. New York: H. W.
Wilson, 1987. 329-30. Print.
"Fleming, Sir Alexander." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online
School Edition ed. Britannica, 5 Dec. 2012. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.
<http://school.eb.com/eb/article-280654#cite>.
Oakes, Elizabeth H. "Fleming, Sir Alexander." Encyclopedia of World Scientists. Revised
Edition ed. Vol. 1. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. Print.
"The Story of Penicillin." University of Oxford. University of Oxford, 1 June 2010. Web.
5 Dec. 2012.
<http://www.ox.ac.uk/research/medical_sciences/projects/penicillin.html>.