12th English Hero No 3 Sir Alexander Fleming by AG Ahmad

 12^th Year Hero No 3

Sir Alexander Fleming

Q. 1. Who were the two men who revolutionized the theory of medicine and practice?

OR What did Pasteur and Lister do in the medical field? [L.B. 2015 G-I]

Ans. Pasteur discovered germs and Lister killed them. These two men together revolutionized the theory and practice of medicine.

Q. 2. What did Louis Pasteur discover? Or Who discovered germs?

Ans. Louis Pasteur, a French Chemist, discovered that disease was caused by living organisms so small that they could not be seen with the naked eye. These were called bacteria or germs.

Q. 3. What did Lister do? Or How can we destroy the germs? Or What was Lister's aim?

Or What is antiseptic method? Or What are antiseptics?

Or What was the object of antiseptic method? Or Who introduced antiseptic method?

Or Who was Lister and what did he do? [L.B 2014 G-I]

Or How did Lister kill germs? [L.B. 2016 S G-I] [L.B 2017 S G-I]

Ans. Joseph Lister, an English Surgeon- later Lord Lister, the first medical peer-applied Pasteur's discovery to surgery. Lister used chemicals, called antiseptics to destroy germs. He thought that germ could be killed or destroyed by heat or chemicals. Lister's aim was the prevention of disease and to stop germs getting into body.

Q. 4. What was the chief defect of antiseptic method? [L.B. 2013 S G-I] [L.B. 2014 S G-

2016] [L.B 2017 S G-I] [L.B. 2017 S G-II] Or Why was the use of Carbolic acid abandoned? [L.B 2008, 2009] [L.B. 2017 G II] Or What was the side effect of injecting carbolic acid in the body? Or What was the limitation of Lister's method? Or Why was Lister's method not successful in curing the disease?

Ans. Injecting Carbolic Acid into the blood was tried, and quickly abandoned for it did more harm than good. Besides killing germs, carbolic acid destroyed body cells also. It even could kill the patient. This was the chief defect of antiseptic method.

Q. 5. Who pointed the presence of leucocytes in the body? Or What part is played by the white cells in the blood of human body? Or What did Metchnikoff reveal? Or What did Metchnikoff discover? Or Who was Metchnikoff and what did he discover? [L.B. 2014]

Or What is the function of Leucocytes or White blood cells? [L.B. 2016 S G-I, L.B. 2017]

Ans. Metchnikoff revealed the true nature of the problem by antiseptics. He discovered the body's natural armour against disease the leucocytes, or white cells of the blood. He showed that when germs enter the body, they are immediately attacked by the hosts of white cells.

Q. 6. Give an account of the early life of Fleming. [L.B 2013 G-II] [L.B. 2017 S G-II]

OR When and where was Fleming born? How was Fleming's early life?

Ans. Alexander Fleming was born on a farm near Darvel, in Ayrshire, on August 6, 1881. He was the youngest of a family of eight. His father died when he was seven years old. At ten he went to Darvel School, and stayed till he was twelve. He was sent to Kilmarnock Academy. At fourteen, he went to London, and for the next two years he studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic.

Q. 7. How did Fleming's family become a medical family?

Ans. His brother Thomas was a qualified oculist. Two brothers became opticians. And back in Scotland one of his sisters married a Darvel doctor, another veterinary surgeon. Thus, they became a medical family.

Q. 8. How did Fleming start his career? Or What did Fleming do after leaving the Polytechnic?

Ans. When Alexander Fleming left Polytechnic, at sixteen, he was to take a job as a clerk in a shipping firm in Leaden-Hall Street. He worked there for four years.

Q. 9. How was he able to train himself in medicine? Or When did Fleming get a share in legacy?

Ans. At twenty, he received a share in legacy. It was not large, but enough for him to train for a career with better prospects. His brother Thomas pushed him into medicine.

Q. 10. What is antiseptic method? Or What was the aseptic method that had replaced antiseptic method of surgery? [L.B 2013 G-I] Or What is aseptic method?

Or What is the difference between antiseptic and aseptic methods?

Or When was antiseptic method replaced by aseptic method?

Ans. By 1914 Lister's antiseptic method of surgery had been largely replaced by what was called the aseptic method. In antiseptic method, chemicals were used to sterilize instruments, clothing and other operating equipment. In aseptic method heat was used for the same purpose.

Q. 11. What was lysozyme? Or What is lysozyme and how Fleming discovered it? [L.B. 2013 S G-I] Or How did Fleming discover Lysozyme? [L.B. 2013 S G-II]

Or Who discovered lysozyme and how? Or When did Fleming discover a natural antiseptic? Or Why was lysozyme different from other chemicals?

Ans. In 1922, Fleming discovered a natural antiseptic manufactured by the body. It was not a chemical like carbolic acid. Fleming was suffering from Catarrh, and began to examine his own nasal secretions. In these secretions he discovered a substance that destroyed microbes on the culture plate. He called lysozyme. Unlike chemical antiseptics, it destroyed germs and yet had no harmful effect on leucocytes.

Q. 12. Describe how Fleming discovered penicillin? (L.B. 2014 S G-II] [L.B. 2015 G-1]

[L.B. 2016 G-II] [L.B. 2016 G-I] Or When did Fleming discover penicillin? [L.B 2014 G-I]

Or The discovery of penicillin "was due to a stroke of good fortune." Explain with reference Alexander Fleming.

Ans. In 1928 at St. Mary's Fleming was carrying out a series of experiments on the common germs called Staphylococcus. He was growing colonies of the germs on plates spread with agar. A piece of fungus came flying from the window and dropped on the plate. Having settled on the cultural plate, mould began to grow and microbes began to disappear. Fleming called it penicillin. He said it was due to a stroke of good fortune.

Q. 13. How did Fleming produce penicillin free of the mould?

Ans. Fleming did this by plating the mould on a meat broth. It grew on the surface as a felt-like mass and turned the broth yellow. After a week's growth, it was strained and tested against bacteria. The result was a success. Fleming called it penicillin.

Q. 14. Write a note on penicillin as a wonder drug. [L.B. 2016 S G-II] Or How is Penicillin a wonder drug? [L.B 2013 G-II] Or Write a few lines about penicillin. Or How is penicillin different from carbolic acid? Or Compare penicillin with chemical antiseptics.

Or In what respect is penicillin better than the chemical antiseptics? [L.B. 2016]

Ans. Penicillin was hailed as a wonder drug. In its effects on germs, penicillin was about three time strong as carbolic acid and all other chemical antiseptics. It has no toxic effect on leucocytes. It revolutionized the healing of war wounds and saved countless lives. It was easily the strongest we yet forged in the fight against disease.

Q.15. What do you know of the Oxford team? Or Who concentrated penicillin in the purified form? Or How did the Oxford team make penicillin more effective?

Or Why did Fleming fail to concentrate penicillin?

Ans. Penicillin was concentrated at Oxford by a team headed by Professor Howard Florey and

Dr. E B. Chain. The Oxford team included trained chemists as well as bacteriologists, and had all equipments that Fleming had lacked. The Oxford team made penicillin effective by concentrating it.

Q. 16. When was Fleming knighted and awarded Nobel Prize?

Ans. Fleming was knighted in 1944, and awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945. Government and universities all over the world showered him with honours.

Q. 17. Was Fleming proud of his discovery? [L.B. 2014 G-II]

OR Why was Fleming not proud of his discovery?

Ans. Fleming never felt proud of his discovery. He said, "Everywhere I go people thank me

for saving their lives. I do not know why they do it. I did not do anything;

Nature makes penicillin. I just found it." It showed his modesty.

Q. 18. Why could not penicillin have been discovered in the research laboratories of America? Or What did Fleming say when he visited an American laboratory?

Or What did Fleming say about the Laboratories in Detroit?

Ans. He visited a modern laboratory in Detroit. It was dustless, air conditioned and sterilized. There was no way for a mould spore to come in and drop on the culture plate. Fleming said, "Wonderful, but penicillin could never have been discovered in a lab like this."

Q. 19. Fleming's achievement paved the way for other discoveries in the medical field.

What are they? Or How did Fleming's achievement provoke other scientists?

Ans. Fleming's achievement provoked others to seek new antibiotics. They started seeking cures from moulds and fungi. In this way many new drugs were discovered made by Nature. Streptomycin was the new discovery. No doubt Fleming's discovery had stimulated new research to find something better.

Q. 20. When did Fleming die?

Ans. Sir Alexander Fleming died in 1955 at the age of seventy-three. His work will never die.

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