“The Penicillin Man”
By: John Rowland
PowerPoint by: Diana Subron
Alexander Fleming was born on August 6th,1881 in
Darvel, Ayrshire, Scotland. He is most famous for
penicillin, which is a vaccine that cures illnesses such
as pneumonia. Fleming died on March 11,1955. I
chose Alexander Fleming because I wanted to know
more about his life and how he made penicillin.
When Alexander was a child, he had three siblings. He had an older sister and
brother, Grace and John , and a younger brother Robert. They were the kids of
their father Hugh’s second marriage. Hugh had four other kids in his first marriage
also. Robert was Alec’s best friend throughout his childhood. All eight kids lived on
a farm in Ayrshire.
His family used to call him “Little Alec” because he was very small for his age. Alec
started school when he was five and he went to a primary school called Loudoun
Moor in Darvel, Ayrshire. In 1888, Alec’s father dies when Alec was seven. This
caused struggles for the family farm that they were renting. The family had less to
live with now that Hugh died.
Alec was always out exploring nature. He was either fishing or climbing into a tree
to see a bird’s nest. That made him curious and adventurous. His brother said “Alec
is always thinking something up, and if it didn't work , he lost no time in
discarding and thinking up something else.”
In 1893 Alec starts school at Kilmarnock Academy in Ayrshire at the age of twelve.
One day , Alec was running around a corner of his school building trying to get to
his next class. He ran into another boy and the boy’s head made full contact with
Alec’s nose. After the swelling went down, Alec saw that his nose was permanently
flattened. When he is fourteen, he leaves to live with his older stepbrother Tom in
London. His brother Robert and his sister Grace also come to London.
He then attends Regent Street Polytechnic school in London for two years. The kids
in class laugh at his and Robert’s strong Scottish accent. The brothers quickly made
friends with their intelligence and their friendly personality.
When he is sixteen, he leaves the school because of lack of money. After he drops
out, Alec becomes a shipping clerk. In 1899, when the Boer War broke out, Alec
and his brother join the army for four years.
In 1901 Alec enrolls in St. Mary Medical School in London. He meets Sally
McElroy in 1914 and then marries her in 1915 on December 13 when he was 44
years old. They moved into a small house in Chelsea, England. Alec was very
active in the Chelsea Arts club, which was a recreation center in the city.
In 1921 Alexander discovered a lysozyme. He then discovered penicillin in 1928.
It dissolves many types of bacteria anywhere. Later that year, he became a
professor of bacteriology at the University of London. When he became a
professor, his mother died.
On March 17,1924 he had his first and only child Robert. Alexander won a Nobel
Prize for medicine along with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain for the discovery of
penicillin. He was giving a public speech one day and spoke about penicillin. He
simply stated, ”Nature makes penicillin; I just found it” . In 1949 his wife Sally
dies. Alexander then remarries one of his fellow workers Amalia Voureka in
1953. Alexander Fleming dies of a heart problem in 1955.
Alexander
Fleming was
born in
Ayrshire ,
Scotland On
August 6,
1881.
1895 -Alec moves
to London with
his stepbrother
Tom , his brother
Robert, and his
sister Grace.
1901- Alec and
enroll in St
Mary medical
school; which is
the same year
that he enters
the army.
1915-Alec
marries
Sarah (Sally)
McElroy
Alec
discovers
the
substance
lysozyme in
1921.
Alec gets his first
and only child
Robert on
March 17,1924.
1928- Alec
discovers
penicillin
which helps
many people
around the
world
In 1949
Alec’s wife
Sarah dies.
1945- Alec
wins the
Nobel Prize
for medicine.
Alexander
Fleming
dies of a
heart
problem in
March 17,
1955 after
being
remarried
to Amalia
Voureka
for two
years.
Fleming discovered a lysozyme in 1921. A lysozyme is a substance
found in animals, mold, plants, and body liquids such as tear drops,
mucus, and saliva. A lysozyme can dissolve many types of bacteria.
Penicillin is also what Alexander discovered, and what he is probably
most famous for. The name comes from the word penicillium, which is
a fungi that Alexander found on a rotting nectarine. He saw that there
was a growth on the nectarine that was killing the mold. He extracted
the growth and he tested it with other bacteria, and it killed the
bacteria. Alexander decided to call it “ penicillin”.
Interesting Story
In 1921, Alec had a cold when he was working with Petri dishes with
bacteria on them. He accidentally sneezed on one of the dishes and it was
sprayed with mucus. He was going to remove it, but he was curious to see
what would happen. So he left the mucus on the dish and he later
examined it. Alec discovered the mucus had dissolved the bacteria and
killed it. Alec tried the same experiment with tears. He studied the human
and animal samples and all the samples had the bacteria-killing substance.
He called the substance a lysozyme.
1. What made you invent penicillin?
2. If you could experiment to create other vaccines , what
would they be called and what would they treat?
3. How did you feel when people were using penicillin?
Rowland, J. (1957). The Penicillin Man. New York: Roy
Publishers.
THE END!!