192 



Microbes and You 



and his associates at Oxford University pursued this problem 

 further. They studied ways and means of purifying penicilHn and 

 of evaluating its possible usefulness. 



From these small beginnings have arisen fabulous industries, 

 and the w^ord fabulous in this case is hardly an exaggeration. 

 Chemical and pharmaceutical houses, under the pressure of war- 



Fig. 32. Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. (From 

 Medical Microbiology for Nurses by Erwin Neter, M.D. Copyright 

 1949, F. A. Davis Company, Philadelphia.) 



time demands, began to produce this antibiotic in quantity, and a 

 better field trial could not have been devised than the opportunities 

 available during World War 11. While some of the earlier claims 

 for penicillin were not substantiated— we did not have a panacea— 

 the miracles performed by this drug in the treatment of disease 

 can never be evaluated with any degree of accuracy. It seems a 

 modest enough statement that the contributions of Pasteur and the 

 development of antibiotics have probably saved more human lives 



