Zones of inhibition? The transfer of information relating to penicillin in Europe during World War II. [Chapter 5 Zones of Inhibition? The Transfer of Information Relating to Penicillin in Europe during World War II].
posted on 2009-09-24, 11:48authored byGilbert Shama
Alexander Fleming published his first description of penicillin in 1929, but the journal
articles that were to propel penicillin from its relative obscurity were those of Howard
Florey and his co-workers at Oxford University. These were published in The Lancet in
the early years of World War II and although wartime conditions restricted the flow of
information on penicillin throughout Europe, they never succeeded in shutting it off
altogether. In Germany an information-gathering initiative was established in the early
phases of the war to systematically copy and distribute British and American scientific
articles. A similar, though less well resourced, operation was permitted to function in
Occupied France. Both of these operations were to yield up information on penicillin to
their respective scientists. However, workers in other countries of occupied Europe fared
less well; there was a dearth of information on penicillin in Holland but despite this,
activity to produce the antibiotic still took place. Central to the production of penicillin at
this time was access to a strain of Fleming’s strain of Penicillium notatum, and an attempt to
explain how this particular strain found its way to various European laboratories is given
here.
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Citation
SHAMA, G., 2009. Zones of inhibition? The transfer of information relating to penicillin in Europe during World War II. IN: Laskin, Allen I. (ed). Advances in Applied Microbiology, Vol 69, Chapter 5, pp. 133-58