In the first World War, as a Captain in the Medical Corps, Fleming had observed some of the antiseptics used were more harmful to white corpuscles than to the bacteria. So he gave his newly found material this test, but the white blood corpuscles came through unharmed although the new substance was two or three times as potent as carbolic acid.

     In 1929, Fleming named his new drug Penicillin. It is an extract from the mold Penicillium Notatum - the name Penicillium is from the Latin for "pencil" or "brush" which describes the mold as seen under a microscope.

     But during this period another sensational remedy took the lime-light. The dramatic sulfa drugs began to interest all of Science.

     However, just before the present World War, their limitations were being recognized and the World of Science resumed its search for a better all-around antiseptic. And Dr. Fleming's ten year old discovery again became active.

     This time a scientific team began to investigate the properties of Penicillin Dr. Howard Florey of Oxford, his wife and Dr. Ernst Chain started to grow the mold again and at last obtained enough for animal experimentation. At first they treated mice inoculated with streptococci. Those treated with Penicillin lived, the untreated ones died.