SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING
1. What are antiseptics and what is the antiseptic method?
Ans: Antiseptics are such chemicals which can destroy germs. Using these chemicals to destroy germs from patient’s skin and wounds is referred to as antiseptic method. The antiseptic method prevents germs from entering the human body. Carbolic acid and iodine are antiseptics. Lister used carbolic acid to sterilize his surgical instruments.
2. What was the chief defect of the antiseptic method?Ans: Antiseptics destroyed germs but they did destroy leucocytes or white blood cells as well. This was the chief defect of antiseptics. When carbolic acid, injected into the blood, was given up as it did more harm than good. Carbolic acid and other anticeptics damage the white cells of the body more than disease germs.
3. What part is played by the white cells in the blood of a human body?
Ans: White blood cells in the body are called leucocytes. They are the natural armour of the body against germs. When germs enter the body, they are attacked by leucocytes. Thus they provide us with a defence against diseases. This was the discovery of a bacteriologist, named Metchnikoff.
4. Give an account of the early life of Fleming.
Ans: Sir Alexander Fleming was born near Darvel in Ayrshire, on August 6, 1881. He father died when he was only seven. He got early education from Darvel School, Kilmarnock Academy and Regent Street Polytechnic in London. Then he worked in Leadenhall Street for four years. Then he went to St. Mary’s, a medical school in London.
5. Describe how Fleming discovered penicillin.
Ans: Fleming discovered penicillin by chance. One day he opened a culture plate of germs to examine it under a microscope. A spore of mould fell on the culture plate from nowhere. To his surprise, it destroyed germs grown on the culture plate. Further studies proved that this spore of the mould contained a natural antiseptic – penicillin.
6. In what respect is penicillin better than the chemical antiseptics?
Ans: Penicillin is about three times as strong as carbolic acid which is a well-known chemical antiseptic. The best thing about penicillin is that this is natural and does not have any harmful effect on the cells of the body. In its crude form it was not usable. It had to be concentrated to be used on patients.
7. What do you know of the Oxford team?
Ans: At Oxford in England, a team,headed by Sir Howard started making efforts to concentrate penicillin. By concentration penicillin was stronger and could be used on patients without any adverse effects. The team included trained chemists and bacteriologists and was well equipped.
8. How did they make penicillin more effective?
Ans: Penicillin in its crude form was not stable. Thus it could not be used to treat wounds. The Oxford team succeeded in producing practical concentration of it and provided the doctors with strong and refined antibiotic medicine which saved millions of lives in the whole world.
9. Write a note on Penicillin as a wonder drug.
Ans: Penicillin was indeed a wonder drug. Previously treatment of war wounds and many other bacterial diseases was not easy and in more cases it was not good. But after the discovery of penicillin, many problems were solved and it saved millions of lives during the World War-II.
10. Was Fleming proud of his discovery?
Ans: Fleming was never proud of his discovery. Instead he used to say that no man could have invented penicillin, nature makes it and he just found it out. He insisted that he discovered it by chance. It was humbleness of his character.
11. Why couldn’t penicillin have been discovered in the research laboratories of America?
Ans: Penicillin could never have been discovered in sterilized, dustless and air-conditioned labs because there was no way in for the spore of a mould as it had happened in the case of discovery of penicillin. American research laboratories were fully protected from the germs and no natural environment was there as a result of which there was zero possibility for the discovery such medicine.
12. Fleming’s achievement paved the way for other discoveries in the medical field. What are they?
Ans: Sir Alexander Fleming founded the antibiotic – growth inhibiting treatment of disease. Both he and Pasteur opened up a whole new world of science. It stirred other scientists to find out new antibiotics. From their researches came new drugs of which best known is streptomycin which stop the growth of disease..
No comments:
Post a Comment