F is for Fleming #BlogchatterA2Z

Alexander Fleming was born on 6 August 1881 in Scotland. He had a scientific career in Bacteriology and Immunology.

During World War I , he saw the deaths of many soldiers that were the result of infected wounds. 

The antiseptics which were used at the time to treat infected wounds, often worsened the injuries.

According to Fleming , antiseptics worked well on the surface, but deep wounds tended to develop anaerobic bacteria from the antiseptic agent, and seemed to remove beneficial agents that protected the patients in these cases .

He mentioned about this in a journal but still most army doctors of the war continued to use antiseptics even in cases where this worsened the condition of the patients.

He continued his tests on antibacterial substances .

By 1927 , he was working on a type of bacteria named Staphylococci .

Fleming went on holiday with his family. Before leaving ,  he had stacked all his cultures of staphylococci on a bench in a corner of his laboratory.

When he returned , one culture deteriorated with a fungus, whereas other staphylococci colonies farther away were normal.

 He found that it produced a substance that killed a number of disease-causing bacteria.

He identified the mould as penicillium. After some time , he named the substance it released as Pencillin.

That is how he discovered Pencillin.

He was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945.

He died in 1955 at his home in London because of a heart attack.

"Nature makes penicillin; I just found it." ~ Alexander Fleming