Patrick Pringle
Q. What are antiseptics, and what is the antiseptic method?
A. Antiseptics are chemicals that kill germs. Application of antiseptics for the purpose of killing germs is called the antiseptic method.
Q. What was the chief defect of the antiseptic method?
A. Antiseptics kill not merely the germs but also destroy the cells of the body, including white blood cells. This is the chief defect of the antiseptic method.
Q. What part is played by the white cells in the blood of a human body?
A. White blood cells or leucocytes act as the body’s natural armour against disease. They produce immunity in the human body.
Q. Give an account of the early life of Fleming.
A. Fleming was born on a farm near Darvel, in Ayrshire, on August 6, 1881. His father died when he was seven years old. At ten, he went to Darvel School from the village school and stayed there till he was twelve. At fourteen, he went to London and for the next two years he studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic.
Q. Describe how Fleming discovered penicillin.
A. In St. Mary’s laboratory, some mould from somewhere dropped on the culture plate of Staphylococcus and started killing the germs. After further investigation, the germ-killing effect of penicillin was discovered. Thus, we may say that Fleming discovered it accidentally.
Q. In what respect is penicillin better than the chemical antiseptics?
A. Penicillin is better than chemical antiseptics because it kills the germs only and does no harm to the white blood cells.
Q. What do you know of the Oxford team?
A. The Oxford team included trained chemists as well as bacteriologists. Dr E. B. Chain and Sir Howard Florey headed it. It worked on the concentration of penicillin.
Q. How did they make penicillin more effective?
A. Penicillin was made more effective by concentrating it.
Q. Write a note on penicillin as a wonder drug.
A. Penicillin is a wonder drug because its effects on germs are three times as strong as any ordinary antiseptic. Moreover, it has no toxic effects at all on leucocytes. It revolutionized the healing of wounds.
Q. Was Fleming proud of his discovery?
A. No, he was always humble and modest and always asserted, “I didn’t do anything; Nature makes penicillin. I just found it”.
Q. Why couldn’t penicillin have been discovered in the research laboratories of America?
A. Penicillin couldn’t have been discovered in American laboratories. The air in them was too pure; there was no way in for spores of a common mould.
Q. Fleming’s achievement paved the way for other discoveries in the medical field. What are they?
A. The discovery of penicillin opened up a whole new world of science. All research workers started a lookout for new antibiotics. Today we have a wider range of them.