2. 1900 - 2000: The 20th century of
the figa
At the start of the 20th century, many people still died from infectious
diseases that today are easily cured. In 1901, the average life expectancy
in the United Kingdom was 47 years. By the year 2000 it had risen to
77 years.It was a discovery by Alexander Fleming in 1928 that would lead
to the range of modern antibiotics that we know today. The twentieth
These have included the development of:
• Penicillin
• insulin
• other medicines
3. Alexander
Fleming
Fleming was a Scottish bacteriologist and Nobel
Prize winner, best known for his discovery of
penicillin.
Alexander Fleming was born in Ayrshire on 6
August 1881, the son of a farmer. He moved to
London at the age of 13 and later trained as a
doctor. He qualified with distinction in 1906 and
began research at St Mary's Hospital Medical School
at the University of London .
In 1928, while studying influenza, Fleming noticed
that mould had developed accidentally on a set of
culture dishes being used to grow the staphylococci
germ. The mould had created a bacteria-free circle
around itself. Fleming experimented further and
named the active substance penicillin.
Fleming wrote numerous papers on bacteriology,
immunology and chemotherapy. He was elected
professor of the medical school in 1928 and
emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University
of London in 1948. Fleming died on 11 March
1955.
4. In 1945 Fleming, Florey and Chain shared the
Nobel Prize in Medicine.
5. In 1871, Joseph Lister noticed that some
moulds could make other microbes grow more
weakly. He did not realise the potential of this
observation and did not follow it any further.
It was over fifty years later, in 1928,
that Alexander Fleming made a similar
observation. Fleming discovered
the antibiotic penicillin whilst working in St
Mary's Hospital, London. A doctor in the First
World War, Fleming realised there were few
effective ways to treat infectious diseases. On
his return to London, he made the discovery
that the mouldPenicillium Notatum produced
a substance that inhibited the growth of
certain bacteria. This penicillin was later
purified by Florey and Chain. The discovery
led to the many antibiotics known today.
