Letters, May 29, 1944

Heartbeat for Penicillin

Sirs:

From TIME (May 15) I quote the following: "Dr. Fleming (who discovered it) ... has got nothing out of it but praise—doctors generally do not patent drugs."

To hell with all mankind when, because of its indifference to the great men who alleviate its pain, it permits them either to starve, die of broken hearts, or pass their last days in acrimonious obscurity.

To Dr. Alexander Fleming, inventor of penicillin, I bequeath $1,000, just to show that the great painkillers of humanity have a few friends with hearts that beat for...

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