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Details
SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING (1881-1955)
Autograph manuscript, draft emendations to a paper on different methods of injecting penicillin, one page, 4to, in blue ink (slight creasing to margins).
FLEMING COMPARES INTRAVENOUS, INTRAMUSCULAR, SUBCUTANEOUS AND DRIP METHODS OF INTRODUCING PENICILLIN: 'After an intravenous injection of 15000 units the penicillin content of the blood is at its maximum immediately and then it drops very rapidly so that it has all gone in 3 hours'; by contrast, with an intramuscular or subcutaneous injection the maximum is achieved after only 6 minutes, at which level it remains for 10 minutes before falling slowly; a drip method maintained a steady level. Fleming goes on to propose repeated injections at 10-15 minute intervals in order to obtain very high levels in the blood: 'After 3 doses intravenously at 10 minutes interval the serum was so powerful that even when it was diluted 1000 times it inhibited staphylococci'.
In his initial work on pencillin following his first observations of the mould in September 1928, Fleming had struggled in particular with the challenge of maintaining high enough concentrations of the 'juice' around infected areas before it lost potency. The present extract reflects Fleming's characteristical technical skill and precision in the measurement of concentrations of drugs in blood, an area in which he had made a notable advance in 1938 in experiments on the German drug sulphonamide.
Autograph manuscript, draft emendations to a paper on different methods of injecting penicillin, one page, 4to, in blue ink (slight creasing to margins).
FLEMING COMPARES INTRAVENOUS, INTRAMUSCULAR, SUBCUTANEOUS AND DRIP METHODS OF INTRODUCING PENICILLIN: 'After an intravenous injection of 15000 units the penicillin content of the blood is at its maximum immediately and then it drops very rapidly so that it has all gone in 3 hours'; by contrast, with an intramuscular or subcutaneous injection the maximum is achieved after only 6 minutes, at which level it remains for 10 minutes before falling slowly; a drip method maintained a steady level. Fleming goes on to propose repeated injections at 10-15 minute intervals in order to obtain very high levels in the blood: 'After 3 doses intravenously at 10 minutes interval the serum was so powerful that even when it was diluted 1000 times it inhibited staphylococci'.
In his initial work on pencillin following his first observations of the mould in September 1928, Fleming had struggled in particular with the challenge of maintaining high enough concentrations of the 'juice' around infected areas before it lost potency. The present extract reflects Fleming's characteristical technical skill and precision in the measurement of concentrations of drugs in blood, an area in which he had made a notable advance in 1938 in experiments on the German drug sulphonamide.
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