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From mice to men was a long, hazardous step. With practically the whole Sir William Dunn School at work, it took many months before there was enough penicillin to treat a man. Penicillin's first human guinea pig was a policeman dying of staphylococcus septicemia (blood infection). After five days on penicillin, he "felt much improved." He felt that way for ten days. Then the bacteria began to multiply again. As there was no more penicillin, he died. Case No. 2 was lost in the same way. The next cases were luckier (TIME, Sept. 15, 1941). At the end of that first series of ten cases, Dr. Florey and his researchers had proved that:
¶ Penicillin is effective against bacteria when injected into muscle or blood stream.
¶ Penicillin by mouth is useless, because it is destroyed by acid stomach juices.
¶ Penicillin works well in the presence of blood serum and pus, is therefore an ideal wound "antiseptic."
¶ Penicillin disappears from the blood in an hour or so and about half of it is excreted in the urine. Says Dr. Florey: "Like pouring water down a basin with the plug out."
They also proved that, unlike the sulfa drugs, which cause bacteria to starve to death, penicillin prevents them from dividing and multiplying — they swell up, but for some as yet undiscovered reason, no longer divide. Penicillin does not kill bacteria — it makes them easy for the body defenses to kill. Sometimes bacteria be come "penicillin-fast," i.e., able to survive in the presence of penicillin. (In the presence of sulfa drugs they may also be come sulfa-fast.)
Dr. Florey and his researchers also discovered that the purer they made penicillin, the paler it was and the less toxic. Since then, no patient has ever had to stop taking penicillin because of toxic reaction.
Vats and Mushroom Cellars. At first, U.S. manufacturers grew the mold in flasks. A few U.S. hospitals made penicil lin by "kitchen culture." But through the whole winter of 1942, only enough penicil lin was made in the U.S. to treat about 50 patients.
By June 1943, enough was coming through for the National Research Council's Committee on Chemotherapeutic and Other Agents, headed by Dr. Chester J. Keefer of Boston, to begin doling penicillin out to 22 groups of doctors all over the U.S., who used it on a handful of civilian guinea pigs.
A catastrophe helped put penicillin into large-scale production. Dr. Keefer used penicillin for Boston's Coconut Grove fire victims (TIME, Aug. 30). U.S. doctors were impressed by the results, demanded penicillin in large quantities. Priority troubles melted away. Last fall, with the help of specially loaned Army expediters, a dozen big drug and chemical manufacturers were running up $20,000,000 worth of penicillin buildings. Some manufacturers never had any pilot plants at all, performed the unheard-of feat of going into mass production right from the laboratory. Big chemical companies which had never fussed with fungus before waited patiently for the blue-green mold. Some distillers, familiar with fermentation, began growing mold in idle vats and financing experimental work in colleges. Mushroom growers around West Grove, Pa. spawned penicillium where mushrooms used to breed.