Here is the summary of the essay Sir Alexander Fleming written by Patrick Pringle. This is a short summary of the essay.
This essay is included in Book II for Second Year students. You can learn this summary and make your own notes.
Sir Alexander Fleming by Patrick Pringle Summary
The summary of this essay is given below.
Read questions answers Notes of this Essay
Sir Alexander Fleming Essay Summary
This is a very informative essay by Patrick Pringle. The writer says that Pasteur discovered germs and Lister killed them. They both revolutionized the theory and practice of medicine. Luis Pasteur discovered that disease is caused by germs.
Lister introduced the first method to prevent germs from entering the skin while operating on a patient. He sterilized his instruments with carbolic acid and used it to kill the germs on his hands and the patient’s skin. This is what is called the antiseptic method.
The antiseptic method could not prevail as it also damaged body cells. Later, the defense system of the body, leucocytes, was discovered. The problem was to find something that would kill germs without harming the leucocytes.
Sir Alexander Fleming joined the staff of the Inoculation Department of St. Mary’s Hospital. He then worked in Wright’s laboratory for eight years. He sought to find means to aid the leukocytes in their fight against invading bacteria.
By 1914 Lister’s antiseptic method was replaced by the aseptic method. Medical officers treated infected wounds with the only method they knew, the chemical antiseptics. Experiments were made with different chemicals and one after another became fashionable and they gave way to the next.
At thirty-seven, Fleming went back to St. Mary’s and continued research and discovered penicillin, a chemical like carbolic acid but a natural antiseptic.
The problem was to concentrate the penicillin to use it for the treatment of the disease. Oxford team did this task and achieved it. In1945, Fleming was awarded Nobel Prize for his discovery.
Fleming was given great gratitude for this discovery but he humbly said that that gratitude was not due to him. He called it a natural gift. He said that nature had made penicillin and he had been accused of inventing penicillin.
You May Also Like
