THE DISCOVERY OF PENICILLIN

FLEMING, ALEXANDER.

On the Antibacterial Action of Cultures of a Penicillium, with special reference to their use in the Isolation of B. Influenzae. [In: British Journal of Experimental Pathology, Vol. X, No. 3].

London, 1929.

4to. Entire vol. X, 1929, bound in black full cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Hinges a bit weak and end-papers renewed. A few leaves loosening a bit. All in all a good, sound copy. Book plate of Frank J. Farrell to inside of front board. Pp. 226-228, (2 pp. - photographic illustrations), pp. 229-236. [Entire volume: VII, (1), 407 pp.].

Seminal first printing of the groundbreaking paper that announces for the first time one of the most revolutionizing discoveries of modern times, namely penicillin. Fleming's accidental discovery and isolation of penicillin in September 1928 (published here for the first time) marks the introduction of the age of useful antibiotics. This magnificent discovery would not only completely change the world of modern medicine, it would change the course of history, continually saving millions of lives around the world.

"When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I suppose that was exactly what I did." (Alexander Fleming).

Fleming reported his great discovery in the present paper published in "British Journal of Experimental Pathology". An original offprint of the paper was also made, but that is of the utmost scarcity and possibly only one copy has survived (although some estimate three copies to be in existence). For a long time, a reprint from 1944 was thought to be the original offprint, but that later turned out not to be the case. The 1944 reprint was commissioned by Fleming himself, because he could locate no copies of the original.

PMM 420a; Norman 798; Grolier 96.

Order-nr.: 54949