Alexander Hamilton's Influence On The Culture Of Bacteria

423 Words1 Page

Born in Ayrshire, Scotland on August 6, 1881, Alexander Hamilton lived a normal childhood alongside his seven siblings. His father was a Scottish farmer, and his mother a housewife. He attended the Louden Moor School, and later the Darvel School and Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London in 1895 with his eldest brother. He finished his education at the Regent Street Polytechnic, and later joined the medical field in 1901, entering the St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School. Fleming served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during WWI,working as a bacteriologist and studying wound infections. While serving in the RAMC, he found out that more soldiers began dying of antiseptic treatments rather than infection, and was the first ever person to recommend …show more content…

In November of 1921, a drop of his mucus fell into a culture of bacteria. Wondering if it had any effect, he mixed it in with the culture. A few weeks later, he found that the culture had dissipated. The immune system in the mucus had erased the bacteria.
His second major discovery, and most probably his most famous, was on September of 1928. After a month away with family, Fleming returned to his lab, where he found that his culture of Staphylococcus aureus had been contaminated with a mold. The colonies of Staphylococcus aureus surrounding the mold, however, had been eliminated. Fleming decided to put the “mold juice” (now called penicillin) through a series of antibacterial tests. While at first Fleming thought penicillin to be a strong lysosome, he later found it to be an antibacterial property.
Fleming’s discovery marked the change of modern medicine. His penicillin testing soon led to better medication not only for the general population, but for the military too. Medical corps in WWII used this new treatment to the fullest extent, and society itself was made healthy again due to penicillin. Alexander Fleming is truly one of the leading biologists of our time, for without him, something as small as a common cold could well be

More about Alexander Hamilton's Influence On The Culture Of Bacteria

Open Document