Amitié Nursing home November 22, 2013 (Virton, Belgium)
Celine,
In response to your phone call last night, this is my souvenir.
Bruxelles 1938
Our little cousin André (André Capon) is gravely sick. He was transferred from Virton to Bruxelles, and we went to see him at the clinic. His mother, Aunt Helen, was near his bed. He is 8 years old. He breathes with difficulty. A yellow liquid is collected by a tube flowing into a glass bowl, half -full.
“You almost lost your little cousin.” She says. “purulent pleurisy - he is healed.”
Oncle René (Doctor Capon) his father told me this later:
“I asked André Gratia who was working on antibiotics and other products to send me a specimen from his research, that were not yet called ‘Penicillin, as a private experimental research test - outside the market place, outside the official research university ‘faculty’. I injected this into my son.”
André Gratia was a professor at the University of Liege and Docteur René Capon and him were first cousins. His mother, Celine Gratia (wife of Paul Capon) was the sister of the Doctor Gustave Gratia, a renowned Belgian hygienist, the father of André Gratia was also a veterinarian who combined both disciplines. He was the Rector of the Veterinary School while concurrently president of the Belgium Academy of Medicine.
ANDRE GRATIA’s mycolysate” antibiotic cocktail — bacteriocins, degradation products, phages, dash of Penicillium — saves lives in Belgium before WWII. Gratia, 1893-1950, was a friend and colleague of Alexander Fleming. #penicillin #antibiotics
#belgium #medicine
#disease #infection #Gratia #fleming #WWII #firstaid
