PENICILLIN DISCOVERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 November 1944, Page 8

PENICILLIN DISCOVERY

SIR H. FLOREY AT AUCKLAND

AUCKLAND, November 7. Australia and New Zealand were better off than Britain and most oilier countries in regard to supplies of penicillin for civilian use, and such supplies were being made available on an increasing scale, said Sir Howard Florey, Professor of Pathology at Oxford, and co-discoverer of penicillin, on his arrival at Auckland from Sydney. U? will spend a little over a 1... . dominion. When 1. . ... -ast July, Sir Howard Floi-.,, civil hospitals had only enough of the drug to begin experiments with it. Dr. L. C. McNickle, of the Hospitals Division of the Health Department, who met Sir Howard Florey on behalf of the Government, and was present at the interview, remarked that at present New Zealand was receiving 40 million units on penicillin weekly from Australia, and this amount was soon to be increased to 50 million. Undoubtedly it was a most generous allocation. Unfortunately, it was not possible to express the quantity in terms that conveyed anything to the layman, because the amount required to treat individual cases varied greatly. Sir Howard Florey, who is a former South Australian Rhodes Scholar, has completed a tour of all the States of the Commonwealth, and has come to New Zealand by arrangement with the Government to meet doctors, and discuss with Government representatives whether it is feasible to manufacture penicillin in the Dominion. He will visit the hospital to-morrow, and address a meeting of the Auckland Division of the British Medical Association in the evening on new developments in the use of penicillin. He is to leave for the south by air on Thursday. The same procedure will be followed in Wellington. Christchurch, and Dunedin.

PROBLEMS OF MANUFACTURE. Speaking of his Australian tour, Sir Howard Florey said he conferred with Army medical authorities there, and visited military hospitals in both Australia and New Guinea. He had previously investigated the use of penicillin in the war with a delegation which spent some time in North African hospitals during the campaign in Sicily. In Melbourne he discussed problems of manufacture with the staff of the Commonwealth serum laboratories, which were the source of supply for Australia and New Zealand. The work had been started there after two Commonwealth Government representatives had been sent to the United States, and Australia had one representative at present in Britain and another in the United States reporting on new developments in production technique. He considered the laboratories were doing a good job, and those responsible deserved every commendation. » Regarding new developments ’in the use of penicillin, Sir Howard Florey said its effective application was definitely limited to certain kinds of bacteria, and this limitation was accepted. His discussions with doctors would concern methods of application. Asked what progress was being made in the investigation of moulds other than penicillium notatum aS sources of therapeutic substances, Sir Howard Florey said many people were at work all over the world, but so far as had been reported all the substances obtained except penicillin were toxic in the human body, and none had been demonstrated to be of use in medicine.