Penicillin: From Fleming to the Pharmacy

Video

John Horgan
by Patrick Kelly
published on 19 June 2024

Penicillin's discovery by Alexander Fleming in 1929 gets a lot of hype as the advent of antibiotics. But in reality, Fleming was just one part of the story. A team from Oxford University led by Howard Florey, in partnership with the Northern Lab in the USA brought penicillin production to the world. In this video, Patrick Kelly tells the history of penicillin.

☠️NONE OF THE INFORMATION IN THIS VIDEO SHOULD BE USED AS MEDICAL ADVICE OR OPINION. IT IS FOR GENERAL EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT☠️

📜 S O U R C E S 📜
Image attributions and fact checked script can be found here. You do not need to be a Patron to view: https://www.patreon.com/posts/penicillin-89784054

Miracle Cure, the Creation of Antibiotics https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Cure-Creation-Antibiotics-Medicine/dp/0525428100?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=corporis-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=536c2608b02b02e77356edd136b4d016&camp=1789&creative=9325

Science, Government, and the Mass Production of Penicillin by PETER NEUSHUL (1993)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24623264
The Discovery of Penicillin: New Insights After More Than 75 Years of Clinical Use (2017) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5403050/
Post- penicillin antibiotics https://www.researchgate.net/publication/32886496_Post_penicillin_antibiotics_from_acceptance_to_resistance

Fleming biographies
https://www.aai.org/About/History/Notable-Members/Nobel-Laureates/AlexanderFleming
https://sciencehistory.org/education/scientific-biographies/alexander-fleming/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bmflem.html
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/penicillin-wasn-rsquo-t-alexander-fleming-rsquo-s-first-major-discovery/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4520913/
Fleming’s 1917 Flavine paper
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(01)52126-1/fulltext
Fleming’s WW1 notebook clippings
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/alexander-flemings-notebook-june-1917-1918
Fleming’s 1929 Penicillin paper
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2048009/pdf/brjexppathol00255-0037.pdf
Fleming’s 1932 Lysozyme retrospective in Journal of Royal Society of Medicine
https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/jrsa/26/2
Fleming BMJ 1941 correspondence
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2162878/pdf/brmedj04059-0024a.pdf
Did Fleming deserve the Nobel? https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11948-019-00149-5.pdf

Beta-lactam pharmcology
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5369031/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554560/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/beta-lactam-antibiotic
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja038445l
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7144564/

Florey and Chain biography https://sciencehistory.org/education/scientific-biographies/howard-walter-florey-and-ernst-boris-chain/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/the-real-story-behind-the-worlds-first-antibiotic
Ramon y Cajal biography https://history.nih.gov/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1016727
Florey letters https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1971.0011
Republication of 1940 Penicillin as Chemotherapeutic Agent https://journals.lww.com/clinorthop/fulltext/2005/10000/the_classic__penicillin_as_a_chemotherapeutic.7.aspx
Howard Florey and the Development of Penicillin https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/532209
History of Corn! https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/08/16/a-brief-history-of-u-s-corn-in-one-chart/
Anne Miller and the New Haven hospital https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/article/fulton-penicillin-and-chance/
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/09/us/anne-miller-90-first-patient-who-was-saved-by-penicillin.html
Younkin’s economic model (2008) https://irle.berkeley.edu/culture/papers/Younkin-Mar08.pdf

💻 C O N T A C T 💻
If you’d like to sponsor a video or have other business inquiries:
patkellyteaches [at] gmail.com

⌛T I M E S T A M P S ⌛
0:00 intro
0:37 Alexander Fleming and St. Mary’s4
4:27 Penicillin pharmacology
8:37 The Oxford Crew
12:44 1939 Mouse Experiment
16:14 Penicillin Production
24:47 The Economics of Penicillin
27:37 The Problems with Penicillin

#historyofmedicine #medicalhistory

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Cite This Work

APA Style

Kelly, P. (2024, June 19). Penicillin: From Fleming to the Pharmacy. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/video/3176/penicillin-from-fleming-to-the-pharmacy/

Chicago Style

Kelly, Patrick. "Penicillin: From Fleming to the Pharmacy." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified June 19, 2024. https://www.worldhistory.org/video/3176/penicillin-from-fleming-to-the-pharmacy/.

MLA Style

Kelly, Patrick. "Penicillin: From Fleming to the Pharmacy." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 19 Jun 2024. Web. 27 Sep 2024.

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