As I lay in the bed at the High Dependency Unit in the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, I found myself thanking God for the antibiotics which were fighting and overcoming the infection in my body. My mind turned to Sir Alexander Fleming, the Scottish man who discovered penicillin, leading to the development of antibiotics. Countless lives have been saved through this ground-breaking medical science. It has often been said that Fleming discovered penicillin through a series of chance events in 1928, but he stated clearly: “I thank God for sending me penicillin… I did not invent penicillin. I observed it. God was the first to put it here on earth for the wellbeing of mankind.” At another time he said that “Discoveries of this magnitude are rare… God took care to hide that country till he judged his people ready; then, he chose me for his whisper and I found it and its yours.”
Fleming was born in 1881 and brought up at Lochfield Farm in the parish of Loudon in Ayrshire, Scotland. Although he grew up culturally as a Presbyterian, he later attended an Anglican church in London, where he could be described as a liberal Christian. At the age of 22 he went to St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in Paddington where he qualified with an MBBS degree three years later, after which he became a medical assistant to Sir Almroth Wright who was a pioneer in immunology. After serving in the First World War, he returned to his work and began investigating bacteria cultures at St Mary’s Hospital, trying to find a way of defeating infections, and was later promoted as Professor of Bacteriology at the University of London in 1928, and Rector of Edinburgh University in 1951.
By 1922, Fleming had investigated what he called “Lysozyme”, which he discovered was “capable of rapidly dissolving certain bacteria”. As such, this was the beginning of the antibiotic revolution. Five years later he was studying bacteria called staphylococci. Then came the unexpected breakthrough on 28 September, 1928. He had inoculated staphylococci, and had left them on a culture plate in his laboratory before going on holiday, but when he returned, he noticed that one culture had been contaminated with a fungus, with the staphylococci being destroyed. He called the fungus Penicillium; it was this discovery that led to one of the world’s greatest medical advances. At first, his discovery was ignored by the scientific community for years, but in time others joined his work to establish medically viable ways of mass-producing penicillin in 1944, just in time for the D-Day invasion of Normandy at the end of World War 2. This “miracle drug” cured multitudes of soldiers, who would have otherwise been lost to infection, and it has been doing its saving work for millions ever since.
“Heal the sick…” (Matthew 10:8, NKJV).
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