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In the Second World War, better care regimes and new drugs such as penicil-lin greatly improved the survival rates of wounded British and American sol-diers who could reach a hospital. This object shows Schenley Laboratories Inc. advertising their large scale production of penicillin. They were one of twenty firms designated by the United States government to produce penicillin especially for the war effort. The picture shows a soldier’s life being saved by penicillin, under the caption: “Thanks to PENICILLIN… He will come home.” The war theme continues by calling penicillin “the most potent weapon ever developed against many of the deadliest infections known to man”. This shows how penicillin was considered a wonder drug.

publisher: Time Incorporated

Place made: United States

Advertisement for penicillin production from Life magazine,

Scanning electron micrograph of Penicillium mould producing spores, very close up.

SEM Penicillium mould producing spores, v. close-up

Salvarsan was a synthetic drug produced to treat the STI syphilis. The drug was developed by Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915), a German medical scientist, and his team in 1909 after three years of research. Ehrlich coined the phrase ‘magic bullet’ to describe this new wonder drug.

The diluted yellow Salvarsan treatment was difficult and painful to inject and it did not cure syphilis overnight. As it was an arsenic based compound, it was also toxic. Salvarsan would later be replaced by antibiotics such as penicillin.

The drug in the kit was made by a German manufacturer Farbwerke vorm Meister Lucius & Bruning AG and is stamped with the date “3 February 1912”. It was sold by a British chemist, W Martindale, who added all the equipment to prepare injections.

maker (Salvarsan): Farbwerke vorm Meister Lucius und Brüning, supplier: W Martindale

Place made: Höchst, Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany

Salvarsan treatment kit for syphilis, Germany, 1909-1912

Scanning electron micrograph of Penicillium mould producing spores, plus very close up view of spore formation.

SEM Penicillium mould & spores, close-up

Poster featuring a wounded US soldier being administered Pencillin by a male military nurse in the jungle. An inset of cells on a culture plate is to the top right hand corner of the image.

Poster advocating the benefits of Penicillin

Two of these tubes of penicillin are labelled with the words “International Standard”. International Standards are set for all manufacturers so that the drug can be used with confidence. It also means that dosage can be regulated by using an International Unit as a yardstick. One International Unit of penicillin was equal to 0.0006 mg.

The International Standard for penicillin, the first antibiotic, was set in 1944 at an Anglo-American meeting. One of the samples is an example of a British Standard of penicillin and is dated 1946.

maker: Unknown maker

Place made: London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom

Three tubes of penicillin powder, two of International Stand

<p>Chain stands at a laboratory bench holding a test-tube (presumably representing penicillin)</p>

1 photograph : photoprint ; sheet 20.4 x 15.2 cm

Ernst Boris Chain. Photograph by Keystone, 194-.

Aṟivuccaṭar varicai

Vintai maruntukaḷ / Em. Es. Utayamūrtti.

<p>In this series of tales of 'ordinary people', Ruth Evans profiles the life of Dr Norman Heatley who was involved in the development of penicillin. Although Alexander Fleming won the Nobel prize for the discovery, he was not responsible for translating the discovery into a pharmaceutical reality. Heatley is quite frail and his wife, Mercy, recalls many of the key hit-and-miss moments in the development of penicillin. Heatley and Florey went to America courtesy of the Rockefeller Foundation to solicit commercial funding to produce penicillin in industrial quantities. The insertion of clips from America makes this production particularly interesting.</p>

It's My Story.

It's My Story

The culture club.

This glass bottle was used to take a blood sample and test for syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection. August von Wassermann (1866-1925), a German physician and bacteriologist, developed this diagnostic blood test in 1906. Shortly afterwards Paul Ehrlich and his team developed a cure for syphilis known as Salvarsan, the so-called ‘magic bullet’. This required, however, a long period of treatment and was later replaced by the use of antibiotics such as penicillin.

maker: Unknown maker

Place made: England, United Kingdom

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Advertisement for penicillin production from Life magazine,

SEM Penicillium mould producing spores, v. close-up

Salvarsan treatment kit for syphilis, Germany, 1909-1912

SEM Penicillium mould & spores, close-up

Poster advocating the benefits of Penicillin

Three tubes of penicillin powder, two of International Stand

Ernst Boris Chain. Photograph by Keystone, 194-.

Vintai maruntukaḷ / Em. Es. Utayamūrtti.

The culture club.

Specimen bottle for blood for a test for syphilis, England,

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More filters

Active filters:

Advertisement for penicillin production from Life magazine,

SEM Penicillium mould producing spores, v. close-up

Salvarsan treatment kit for syphilis, Germany, 1909-1912

SEM Penicillium mould & spores, close-up

Poster advocating the benefits of Penicillin

Three tubes of penicillin powder, two of International Stand

Ernst Boris Chain. Photograph by Keystone, 194-.

Vintai maruntukaḷ / Em. Es. Utayamūrtti.

The culture club.

Specimen bottle for blood for a test for syphilis, England,

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