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20thc Megastars

Paul Ehrlich discovered the "magic bullet" salvarsan, the first chemotherapy drug, which cured syphilis after testing 605 dyes and discovering the 606th worked. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 after noticing a mould growing on a dish that prevented bacterial growth, but it took further work to purify and mass produce it. Gerhard Domagk discovered sulphonamides in 1932, chemicals that could kill germs without harming the body and were used to treat infections like pneumonia.

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Dafydd Humphreys
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63 views2 pages

20thc Megastars

Paul Ehrlich discovered the "magic bullet" salvarsan, the first chemotherapy drug, which cured syphilis after testing 605 dyes and discovering the 606th worked. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 after noticing a mould growing on a dish that prevented bacterial growth, but it took further work to purify and mass produce it. Gerhard Domagk discovered sulphonamides in 1932, chemicals that could kill germs without harming the body and were used to treat infections like pneumonia.

Uploaded by

Dafydd Humphreys
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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20th Century Medical Megastars

Paul Ehrlich and the first magic bullet


Ehrlich was one of the students of Emil Behring who discovered that the bodies of
animals could produce natural chemicals which would kill the poisons (toxins) produced by
some germs. These natural chemicals are called antitoxins. Behring discovered that antitoxins
produced in the blood of horses could be injected into humans suffering from diphtheria.
Ehrlich began to wonder if man-made chemicals could be found that would work inside the
body in the same way. He wanted to find a "magic bullet" which would always find its target.
In Germany, where Ehrlich worked, the chemical industry was large and wealthy and
ready to spend money on research that might find new uses for its products. Koch had used
chemical dyes to stain microbes so he could see them better, and he found that some of them
killed the microbes. Ehrlich set out to look for a dye that would kill disease microbes without
harming the human body. He wanted to find a cure for syphilis. He infected rabbits with the
disease and tested 605 dyes on the germ over a period of ten years. The 606th one worked. It
killed the germ and cured the disease. The first magic bullet had been found. It was called
salvarsan.
The discovery was nearly missed. The 606th one had been tested a year before and
discarded as useless. Hata, a Japanese assistant, was testing one of the discarded dyes and found
out that it did work. Ehrlich insisted that it was thoroughly tested and found it did work.

Fleming and the discovery of penicillin in 1928


In the first World War Fleming worked in an army hospital in Fance. Bullets or shell
fragments carried dangerous germs deep inside the body and antiseptics could not be used
against them. Fleming wished he had something like Salvarsan which could be used to kill these
dangerous germs. After the war he went back to his research on identifying bacteria and trying
to find ways of killing them. In 1928 Fleming was studying the germs causing boils and spots.
He had dozens of glass dishes on which they were growing. He noticed that some of the dishes
had a mould growing upon it. It was not unusual for this to happen but Fleming noticed that no
germs were growing the edges of the mould. He took a sample of the mould so that he could
study it further.He discovered that the mould could killl a number of dangerous bacteria e.g the
ones causing diphtheria, gangnrene and meningitis. The mould was a member of the penicillium
family and he called the germ-killing substance penicillin. He could not purify the mould juice
nor could he make it last for a long time. He did find out that it seemed to do no harm to body
tissues. When he could get no further with the mould he wrote articles describing his work and
returned to study other substances. For 11 years penicillin was not studied.

Gerhard Domagk, the French and the sulphonamides 1932 and 1935
In 1932 Gerhard Domagk, a scientist working for a large German chemical firm, discovered a
dye that could kill the germs of several diseases without harming the human body. Then in 1935
French scientists discovered that it was one of a group of chemicals called sulphonamides.
Domagk had first used it to save the life of his daughter who had pricked her finger with a
needle and had developed blood poisoning. But sulphonamides were soon found to cure many
infectious diseases such as pneumonia and scarlet fever.

By Mr Davies www.SchoolHistory.co.uk
Florey and Chain (Penicillin Part Two)
In 1938 work began on penicillin again. Florey was an Australian and Chain was a
German Jew who had fled to Britain to escape Hitler's persecution. They were studying natural
substances which killed bacteria and read Fleming's 1929 article on penicillin. Their tea, were
able to purify the mould juice but they could only produce long-lasting penicillin in very small
quantities. The British chemical industry was fully occupied with producing explosives for the
war. Florey went to the United States to ask for American help. The US government paid out
millions of dollars to the companies to pay for all the new equipment. The improvements that
patients made justified the expense. The firsr variety of penicillium used would only grow on
the surface of liquids. A new variety of the penicillium was found which could be grown at
depth in huge tanks. By 1943 Allied armies began to use it. By 1944 there was enough for all the
wounded in the D-Day invasion of Europe.

Christiaan Barnard and the first heart transplant 1967


Organ transplants can cause problems for surgeons. The body produces substances to
destroy foreign tissue and these can affect the workings of transplanted organs. Drugs have to be
given to reduce the amount of these natural substances. This reduction in the body's immune
system means that disease-causing germs could do well. Doctors carrying out transplants have
to try to make sure that as few germs are around the patient as possible. The doctors had to be as
clean as possible. The average person is estimated to have about 60,000 microbes on each
square inch of his or her skin. The first heart-transplant made front page news all around the
world when it was carried out in South Africa . Today sufferers from cystic fibrosis are often
given the heart and lungs of a donor as this causes fewer complications.
Parts of the human body which can be transplanted from one person to another include
hair, cornea, lungs, blood, heart, liver, kidneys,pancreas, skin and blood vessels.

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