388 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946 
Medical progress is still in the news and a chemotherapeutic agent 
even more wonderful than the sulfonamides has become available. 
People may look, but few see. No doubt many others before Alex- 
ander Fleming had looked at bacterial cultures accidentally con- 
taminated with mold. But it remained for him to notice that the 
mold had cleared a wide, bacteria-free area between itself and the 
staphylococci on the plate. It was he who saw the potentialities of 
this observation. He soon found that a liquid in which this mold 
was grown, even when diluted 800 times, prevented the growth of 
staphylococci. Thus it was 2 or 3 times as strong in this respect as 
pure carbolic acid. 
These events occurred in 1928. Eleven years passed before further 
progress took place. While penicillin was evidently a potent antibiotic, 
the problem of manufacturing it in adequate quantities seemed insu- 
perable. Furthermore, the sulfonamides had been discovered in the 
meantime and seemed at first to make the need for the development of 
penicillin less important. At last, in 1938, Florey, Chain, and their 
associates in England approached the problem again, seeking evidence 
of the value of penicillin in experimental infections in mice and meth- 
ods for its manufacture in quantity. They succeeded in making a 
highly concentrated preparation of penicillin which was effective ex- 
perimentally and could be used in humans. But its production was 
difficult and cumbersome. 
By this time, in order to coordinate scientific effort in the present 
war, there had been organized in this country under the Office of 
Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) and in collaboration 
with the National Research Council, means whereby the scientific 
facilities of the country and scientists in various fields could be mar- 
shalled. Dr. Florey came to the United States and, with the aid of 
a special committee of the National Research Council, a major attack 
on the problem of penicillin production was made. In this work 
the United States Department of Agriculture as well as a number of 
the large pharmaceutical houses played an important role. Without 
doubt the needs of war and the scientific collaboration which the war 
has brought about are responsible in large measure for the speed with 
which penicillin has been developed. 
This new chemotherapeutic agent possesses many advantages as 
compared with the sulfonamides. ‘These include its extraordinary 
speed of action, its effectiveness against organisms which the sulfonam- 
ides do not influence or which have become resistant to their action, 
and its lack of harmful effects. The speed with which penicillin acts, 
measured in hours rather than in days or weeks, is more dramatic in 
certain types of infection than even the most sanguine might have 
hoped for. A most unexpected finding is the value of penicillin in the 
treatment of early syphilis, a disease which is not influenced by the 
