The discovery of penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, a professor of Bacteriology at St. Mary's hospital in London marked the beginning of a new era. A simple burn or scrape could no longer kill. Blood poisoning, pneumonia, and gonorrhea became treatable with the new life-saving fungus. Fleming's discovery gave doctors the opportunity to fight illnesses and infections instead of having to wait and hope for illnesses to resolve themselves.
With the second World War, penicillin became commercialized and widely available for use. In the early 1940s, Jasper Kane and Charles Pfizer began to revolutionize the war penicillin was produced. Before, it could only be made in small batches that were often unstable, but using Pfizer's large tank method, larger and more stable batches were produced. Pfizer researchers also helped with the discovery that the natural yellow color of penicillin meant that impurities were present. They developed a way of crystallizing the penicillin so that it was pure white and viable for years.
Penicillin Tanks
Before penicillin, disease and non-battle deaths often doubled battle deaths. WWII and onward (with exception of the Gulf War) deaths due to disease were only a small portion of casualties suffered. For example, the Union casualties incurred in the Civil War from battle were 140,414 compared to the 224,097 casualties from non-battle causes, which was 61% of casualties. The first World War had similar percentages, 53,402 battle casualties and 63,114 non-battle casualties which were 55% of total losses. The Spanish-American and Mexican-American war had even worse casualty percentages, at 87% and 84% respectively. Compared to the second World War with 28% non-battle casualties, the Korean War with 7.8%, and the Vietnam War with 19%, the difference is astounding.
WWII ad for penicillin
The invention of penicillin was completely revolutionary not only in saving people's lives, but in modern warfare as well. Now, governments and military don't have to plan to lose more than half of their force off the battlefield and therefore have to enlist or draft the extra men to die of disease or sickness, often before even getting onto the battlefield.
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This is a very good post on an interesting time period. The discovery of penicillin was in fact very revolutionary as it changed the entire medicine industry. It seemed to have been seen as a sort of cure-all and it makes sense that it would be commonly used in the military. This discovery is considered among the most important in the medical fields, and that is with very good reason.
ReplyDeleteGreat post about WWII and penicillin. Like many inventions, the discovery of penicillin was actually accidental. It is also interesting to see penicillin so valued, but we must be careful about its uses or the bacteria will grow immune to it. Do you believe that penicillin played a significant role in preventing casualties in WWII?
ReplyDeleteFor more information on penicillin:
https://www.drugs.com/penicillin.html