The Story of Penicillin that we were taught as children was a simple story of how Alexander Fleming searched in vain for antibacterial agents until Penicillium mould spores drifted through his open laboratory window onto a plate of bacteria and killed them. Realising immediately the potential, he spent many years fighting against a resistant medical establishment and then guided Howard Florey and Ernst Chain to refine and test his great discovery.
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- 1 Private practice, Adelaide, SA.
- 2 Department of Psychiatry, Adelaide University, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville South, SA.
Correspondence: alexander.mcfarlane@adelaide.edu.au
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