“ BACTERIA FRIEND OR FOE? “ 1954 EDUCATIONAL FILM PENICILLIN MEDICINES & ANTIBIOTICS 89464

This 1954, color educational film made by Encyclopedia Brittanica is about antibiotics, specifically the new era of treatments made possible by the discovery and widespread use of mold derived medicines. The film celebrates the use of Penicillin, which was up at this point one of the most important discoveries in medicine. It was discovered in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming as a crude extract of P. rubens. The purified compound (penicillin F) was isolated in 1940 by a research team led by Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain at the University of Oxford. Fleming first used the purified penicillin to treat streptococcal meningitis in 1942. For the discovery, Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Florey and Chain. Opening: Antibiotics shown on a table with medical supplies including bandages. Injured and wounded soldiers, probably in the Korean War, are shown being treated by doctors and nurses. A child takes a pill. A small boy has a bandage wrapped around his head.