Reserve Constable Albert Alexander (1896 – 15 March 1941) was the first

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health c ...

to be treated with injections of

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum using ...

. Albert Alexander was a

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

in the police force of the

County of Oxford Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. A bombing raid is likely the cause of the injuries sustained by Constable Alexander that was to become the source of his bacterial infection, rather than what became the prevailing narrative, a scratch by a rose thorn on his face. Alexander became badly infected with both ''

Staphylococcus ''Staphylococcus'' is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria in the family Staphylococcaceae from the order Bacillales. Under the microscope, they appear spherical (cocci), and form in grape-like clusters. ''Staphylococcus'' species are facultative ...

'' and ''

Streptococcus ''Streptococcus'' is a genus of gram-positive ' (plural ) or spherical bacteria that belongs to the family Streptococcaceae, within the order Lactobacillales (lactic acid bacteria), in the phylum Bacillota. Cell division in streptococci occurs ...

'' and Constable Alexander was hospitalised in the

Radcliffe Infirmary The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central north Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street. History The initial proposals to build a hospital in Oxford were put forw ...

. Despite efforts of various treatments, Alexander's head was covered with abscesses and one of his eyes had been removed. Dr Ethel Florey, lab partner and wife of pharmacologist and medic Dr

Howard Walter Florey Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (24 September 189821 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in ...

, and Dr Charles Fletcher brought Constable Alexander's case to Florey's attention. The ability of penicillin to slow or counteract bacterial infection had first been noticed by Sir

Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of w ...

in 1928. Florey,

Ernst Boris Chain Sir Ernst Boris Chain (19 June 1906 – 12 August 1979) was a German-born British biochemist best known for being a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on penicillin. Life and career Chain was born in Ber ...

and

Norman Heatley Norman George Heatley OBE (10 January 1911 – 5 January 2004) was an English biologist and biochemist. He was a member of the team of Oxford University scientists who developed penicillin. Norman Heatley developed the back-extraction technique ...

, at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology,

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

were working on the medical applications of

, as produced by the mould ''

Penicillium notatum ''Penicillium chrysogenum'' (formerly known as ''Penicillium notatum'') is a species of fungus in the genus ''Penicillium''. It is common in temperate and subtropical regions and can be found on salted food products, but it is mostly found in in ...

'', and attempting to isolate quantities of penicillin from the mould large enough for a human trial. Having tried the extracted penicillin only on mice, Florey and colleagues were fearful of the side effects large doses of penicillin might have. For a human volunteer, they needed a patient who was in a terminal condition; Constable Alexander suited this requirement. On 12 February 1941, Constable Alexander was given an intravenous infusion of 160 mg (200 units) of penicillin. Within 24 hours, Alexander's temperature had dropped, his appetite had returned and the infection had begun to heal. However, due to the instability of penicillin and the war-time restrictions placed on Florey's laboratory, only a small quantity of penicillin had been extracted and, although Florey and colleagues extracted any remaining penicillin from Alexander's urine, by the fifth day they had run out. Constable Alexander relapsed, and died on 15 March 1941. Florey and his team decided to work only on sick children who did not need such large amounts of penicillin, until their methods of production improved. This was not a trivial challenge: penicillin production varied widely depending on the conditions in which it was grown. During World War II, several American companies tried to scale up production. In the words of Pfizer executive John Smith, “The mold is as temperamental as an opera singer, the yields are low, the isolation murder, the purification invites disaster.” Nonetheless, by March 15, 1945, supplies of penicillin were not only available to American troops, but to the American public, as war-time restrictions on availability were lifted.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Albert 1941 deaths 1873 births category:Oxfordshire Constabulary officers People from Oxford Deaths from streptococcus infection Deaths from staphylococcal infection Patient