Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 2 on 5/6/2002.

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The accidental hero: Alexander Fleming

The story of the Scottish scientist who discovered the 20th century's greatest weapon against bacterial infections by chance...

Alexander Fleming was born to a Scottish farming family of Lochfield, Ayrshire in 1881, one of eight children. He excelled at his studies, and although employed by a shipping firm and part of a Scottish Regiment when the Boer War began in 1900, he eventually chose St Mary’s Hospital in London to study medicine, specialising in bacteriology.

During World War I, as a captain in the Army Medical Corps, he worked in a battlefield hospital station with the wounded, many of whom died from simple infections to their injuries.

On his return to St Mary’s, Fleming researched non-toxic antibacterial and antiseptic substances. It was in 1928 that he made the all-important discovery that would change medicine forever and save countless lives. Fleming had a theory that his own nasal mucus might have antibacterial properties. Leaving some of the substance, staphylococcus, on a petri dish for two weeks while away, on his return he noted that surrounding the mould which had formed on the mucus was a clear halo, mould-free. Left for a further period, more mould grew in the dish, but never over this clear area. Unlike the scientists John Tyndall and D A Gratia who had in fact noted the phenomenon years earlier, Fleming recognised the importance of his discovery. He understood a substance which prevented bacterial growth was produced by the mould, and he named this penicillin. Even when diluted hundreds of times, the substance was still potent.

His findings were published in the British Jo.....

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By Brigid James

Section : Scottish Innovators

Page number : 90