#bacteriologist

June 2nd 1926 saw the death of Sir William Leishman, Scottish bacteriologist.

Professor Sir William Boog Leishman was a Glasgow graduate and a distinguished bacteriologist and pathologist who gave his name to a disease, Leishmaniasis, the cause of which he discovered.

Leishman was born in Glasgow, the son of William Leishman, the Regius Professor of Midwifery at Glasgow from 1868 until 1894. He was educated at Westminster School and matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1880, at the age of fourteen, to study Greek, Latin and Maths. He began his medical studies in 1882 and graduated in 1886 with High Commendation, but had to wait until November to comply with the Faculty age regulations.

After graduation he joined the Army Medical Corps and served in India, returning to work at the Army Medical School at Netley. It was while he was an assistant Professor there in 1900 that he identified the causative parasite of Dum-dum fever (now known as leishmaniasis). After the war he became the first Director of Pathology at the War Office and later Medical Director of the army medical services.

On 2nd June 1926 Sir William Leishman, the Scottish bacteriologist, died.

Leishman was born in Glasgow and attended Westminster School and the University of Glasgow at the age of fourteen, to study Greek, Latin and Maths. He began his medical studies in 1882 and graduated with an MB CM in 1886 with High Commendation, but had to wait until November to comply with the Faculty age regulations.

After graduation he joined the Army Medical Corps and served in India, returning to work at the Army Medical School at Netley. It was while he was an assistant Professor there in 1900 that he identified the causative parasite of Dum-dum fever (now known as leishmaniasis). 

After the war he became the first Director of Pathology at the War Office and later Medical Director of the army medical services.

November 6th 1885 saw the birth of Sir William Leishman, Scottish bacteriologist.

Professor Sir William Boog Leishman was a Glasgow graduate and a distinguished bacteriologist and pathologist who gave his name to a disease, Leishmaniasis, the cause of which he discovered.

Leishman was born in Glasgow, the son of William Leishman, the Regius Professor of Midwifery at Glasgow from 1868 until 1894. He was educated at Westminster School and matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1880, at the age of fourteen, to study Greek, Latin and Maths. He began his medical studies in 1882 and graduated with an MB CM in 1886 with High Commendation, but had to wait until November to comply with the Faculty age regulations.

6th August 1881 saw the birth of  Sir Alexander Fleming, the Nobel prize-winning bacteriologist.

Born at at Lochfield farm near Darvel, Ayrshire, the third of four children, Alexander was educated at Loudoun Moor School and Darvel School, and earned a two-year scholarship to Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London, where he attended the the Royal Polytechnic Institution. He worked in a shipping office for four years, but on receiving an inheritance when he was 20, his brother, already a doctor, encourage him to go to medical school, which he did and excelled, qualifying with distinction in 1906.

His military service actually led to his transition into research; as a member of the military and the rifle team at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, the captain of the team wanted to keep Fleming on the team, so he suggest that he join the research department after finishing school.

His military service actually led to his most important work. After witnessing so many soldiers die from infection following their battle wounds, he set about to find a cure for bacterial infections.

Fleming was one of the first researchers to recognize that antiseptics only treated surface wounds, and that antiseptics also tended to kill off the beneficial agents that helped fight infection.

Even though he had a solid reputation as a great researcher, Fleming’s lab and workspace were often very messy. This actually led to the discovery of penicillin. He had been studying the different properties of a strain of staphylococcus bacteria, but allowed mold to grow in the petri dish where a sample was stores due to these lab conditions.

When he went to work in his lab on September 28, 1928, he discovered that the staph couldn’t grow near the penicillium mould. He uncovered the properties of the mold that prevented the staph from spreading to that region of the plate. Fleming almost didn’t continue researching penicillin, since it was hard to make the mold grow and it was difficult to isolate the antibacterial property of it. An article he published on his findings received very little attention at first.

Two other researchers, Ernst Boris Chain and Edward Abraham, actually discovered how to isolate the penicillin and increase its potential, and they shared the Nobel Prize with Fleming. Fleming was modest about his part in the development of penicillin, describing his fame as the “Fleming Myth” and he praised Florey and Chain for transforming the laboratory curiosity into a practical drug.

June 2nd 1926 saw the death of Sir William Leishman, Scottish bacteriologist.

Professor Sir William Boog Leishman was a University of Glasgow graduate he became a distinguished bacteriologist and pathologist who gave his name to a disease, Leishmaniasis, the cause of which he discovered. Leishman was born in Glasgow, the son of William Leishman, the Regius Professor of Midwifery at Glasgow from 1868 until 1894. He was educated at Westminster School and matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1880, at the age of fourteen, to study Greek, Latin and Maths. He began his medical studies in 1882 and graduated with an MB CM in 1886 with High Commendation, but had to wait until November to comply with the Faculty age regulations.

After graduation he joined the Army Medical Corps and served in India, returning to work at the Army Medical School at Netley. It was while he was an assistant Professor there in 1900 that he identified the causative parasite of Dum-dum fever (now known as leishmaniasis). After the war he became the first Director of Pathology at the War Office and later Medical Director of the army medical services.

On 28th September 1928 Alexander Fleming, a Scottish researcher discovered penicillin. 

Often described as a careless lab technician, Fleming returned from a two-week vacation to find that a mold had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mould, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci. Staphylococcus is a bacteria that can be found normally in the nose and on the skin.

An article published by Fleming in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929 reads, “The staphylococcus colonies became transparent and were obviously undergoing lysis … the broth in which the mould had been grown at room temperature for one to two weeks had acquired marked inhibitory, bactericidal and bacteriolytic properties to many of the more common pathogenic bacteria.”

Published reports credit Fleming as saying: “One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up just after dawn on Sept. 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I guess that was exactly what I did.”

Though Fleming stopped studying penicillin in 1931, his research was continued and finished by Howard Flory and Ernst Chain, researchers at University of Oxford who are credited with the development of penicillin for use as a medicine in mice.

Penicillin made a difference during the first half of the 20th century. The first patient was successfully treated for streptococcal septicaemia in the United States in 1942. However, supply was limited and demand was high in the early days of penicillin.

Penicillin helped reduce the number of deaths and amputations of troops during World War II. According to records, there were only 400 million units of penicillin available during the first five months of 1943; by the time World War II ended, U.S. companies were making 650 billion units a month.

November 6th 1885 saw the birth of Sir William Leishman, Scottish bacteriologist. 

Professor Sir William Boog Leishman was a Glasgow graduate and a distinguished bacteriologist and pathologist who gave his name to a disease, Leishmaniasis, the cause of which he discovered.

Leishman was born in Glasgow, the son of William Leishman, the Regius Professor of Midwifery at Glasgow from 1868 until 1894. He was educated at Westminster School and matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1880, at the age of fourteen, to study Greek, Latin and Maths. He began his medical studies in 1882 and graduated with an MB CM in 1886 with High Commendation, but had to wait until November to comply with the Faculty age regulations.

After graduation he joined the Army Medical Corps and served in India, returning to work at the Army Medical School at Netley. It was while he was an assistant Professor there in 1900 that he identified the causative parasite of Dum-dum fever (now known as leishmaniasis). After the war he became the first Director of Pathology at the War Office and later Medical Director of the army medical services.