09/04/2026
From our friends at the New England History of Medicine Society: On September 3, 1928 Alexander Fleming returned from 2 weeks in Scotland and noticed something unusual in a culture plate he had left on his laboratory bench. A contaminating mold had killed the surrounding bacteria.
However, Alexander Fleming did not discover penicillin. Apart from the ancient use of moldy bread and similar items on lacerations and wounds, Joseph Lister experimented with penicillin in 1871, decades before Fleming, but he decided that it was not especially effective. What set Fleming apart was that Fleming’s mold was an exceptionally potent strain.
Although it would take more than a decade before Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, and their colleagues transformed penicillin into a practical treatment, Fleming's observation marked the beginning of the antibiotic era.
And, it would not be until near the end of World War II that deep tank fermentation would make the antibiotic available in large quantities. Prior to that, urine would be collected and filtered from those given penicillin and reused in another patient. Past Massachusetts Medical Society president Grant Rodkey (1917-2020) actually did this during his training!
