The legend of the discovery of penicillin is one that is familiar in modern history. Alexander Fleming, a man not known for his cleanliness, leaves a petri dish unwashed for a couple of weeks – much like your flatmate’s dishes – and discovers a mould with mystical bacteria-destroying properties. He, of course, sees great potential in it and hopes to save the lives of many with this new bacteriolytic mould – Penicillium notatum.
Wrong.
Like many events in history, misinformation surrounds the public knowledge of this event. Fleming himself was keen to promote this myth in later years, but the evidence tells a different story. After several futile attempts at re-growing, purifying and stabilising his new mould, Fleming gave up. He considered Penicillium notatum to have no practical use, except for the easy cleaning of used petri dishes.
Researching a topic is full of twists and turns, never as straight forward as it may seem at the outset. What you believe you already know is challenged. It’s discoveries like this that can inspire you in your work, push you forward, and encourage you to keep going. Pulling this information together encouraged me to write my first 3000 words in one night. It may not seem like much, but at least I had (finally) started.
As I continued I discovered that penicillin, originally banned as a treatment for STIs due to their negative stigma and self-inflicted nature, became crucial to the NZ Army for reducing sick leave from 1-6 weeks to 48 hours. Soldiers could be returned to the field in record time. This ultimately culminated in New Zealand’s creation of a mobile penicillin unit to follow the troops North through Italy, treating their rampant cases of gonorrhoea and syphilis.
The treatment of these STIs were also of great importance to the New Zealand public back home. The government could not, and would not, have men returning to their wives and girlfriends infected with a sexually transmitted disease – not out of concern for the women back home, but rather so that the image of the noble Kiwi soldier would not be tarnished by evidence of their ‘indiscretions’.
Sometimes research doesn’t always give you the story that you want. I was fortunate enough to find an excellent record of the first New Zealand civilian patient treated with penicillin (although the Doctor’s notes left a lot to be desired), however this was not a story of the miracle cures of the lab or battlefront hospitals, but instead one of suffering and death. Disheartened by the story I had found, but feeling the pressure of a due date, the woes of research had to be brushed off and I continued forward.
Research is never easy, never straightforward, and never what you expect.