"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." - A. A. Milne


The Epistream flippantly glossed over a couple of major discoveries in our last installment. This was to emphasise the obscure roots of ordinary items and was quite intentional.

However, the disregard for those breakthroughs has left me wondering whether or not the case had been closed by way of false knowledge. To address this, let us look at the discovery of penicillin.

Under a microscope, the spore-bearing arms of the mould resemble tiny paintbrushes. The Latin for writer's paintbrush is penicillum, which is where we get the word pencil too.

So, Penicillin. Discovered by...?

Wrong.

Sir Alexander Fleming did receive a Nobel Prize for the re-discovery of its antibiotic qualities in 1944. Now, the top of the class will no-doubt have noticed the use of that critical prefix. The semantic argument on ones ability to re-discover, gripping as it is, will be saved for another time. The real beef here, is mould.

The earliest documented use of mould as an ingredient in healing ointments comes from the Bedouin tribes of North Africa. For over a thousand years they have exploited the antibiotic qualities of the mould that grows on their donkeys' harnesses.

1897 witnessed another triumphant act of re-discovery as French army doctor Ernest Duchesne observed Arab stable hands using the mould from damp saddles to treat saddle sores. Exactly where the stable hands re-discovered this technique from is unknown. However, Duchesne identified the mould as Penicillium Glaucum and used it to cure guinea pigs (actual guinea pigs, rather miscellaneous experimental subjects) of typhoid. He also studied it's effect on the E. coli bacteria in what was the first clinical testing of the antibiotic now known as Penicillin. This research formed the basis of his thesis, in which he advocated further study into its antibiotic implication. Sadly, the Institut Pasteur never acknowledged his work and Duchesne died of tuberculosis in 1912. Ironically, a disease that his own discovery would go on to cure.

Back to Sir Fleming...

Sir Alexander Fleming recounted that the date of his breakthrough re-discovery was the morning of Friday, September 28, 1928. Another example of fortuitous, accidental discovery, it occurred in his laboratory, nestled in the basement of St. Mary's Hospital, now part of London's Imperial College. Fleming noticed that a petri dish containing Staphylococcus culture had been mistakenly left open and was contaminated by blue-green mould. Around it was a halo of inhibited bacterial growth. He concluded that the mould must be releasing a substance that was lysing the bacteria. He grew a pure culture and (re-)discovered that it was a Penicillium mould. At the time, he identified it as Penicillium Rubrum but Charles Thom recognized it to be Penicillium notatum many years later.

Anyway, if you'd like to try your hand at a bit of re-discovering, (and who knows, you might just get a Nobel prize for it too) then here are some likely places to find penicillin...

• Brie
• Camembert
• Danish Blue
• Gorgonzola
• Limburger
• Roquefort
• Stilton

Now, I'm off to do a bit of intrepid re-discovering myself.