[sunnyatlast]

If you want to go back to the days before penicillin, head for the hills, build an off-grid hut, and don't go to a doctor or dentist.

Here is an excerpt from a memoir of those "wonderful" pre-penicillin days:

The discovery of penicillin has often been described as a miracle drug, and that is exactly what it was. Prior to the discovery of penicillin, death could occur in what would seem, today, to be very trivial injuries and diseases. It could occur from minor wounds that became infected or from diseases such as Strep Throat, and venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea were a much more serious issue.

Early in 2005, an email came asking for information about penicillin. The email was from Dr. Morton Paterson, a retired philosophy professor, now living in Canada. He was writing his autobiography for his grandchildren as a legacy for them. Part of that autobiography had to do with the impact penicillin played in his life. When he emailed me the story, I knew that it was one that I wanted to share. As a boy, just prior to the discovery of mass producing penicillin, Dr. Paterson had badly scraped his knee, an injury that he almost died from. The following is his account of this injury and how it was treated at that time:

"It was the late spring of 1942, and I was seven years old. My sister Lorna had just been born. One day I was outside playing with my friends - running while playing tag or something. There weren't any parks or grassy fields, so the kids played on the rocks or on the streets. I fell on the street, which was covered with chunks of slag (waste from the Smelter), and scraped my right knee. I guess it was bleeding pretty bad, so I ran home. Later I was told that it was on a Wednesday, and that my temperature shot up and up. By Saturday Mum and Dad had a sick boy on their hands, so on the advice of Dr. Chappell, our family doctor, I was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital in Sudbury.

The cut on my knee had become infected, and I had blood poison. For a few days I guess I was "out of it", in a coma, and hung in the balance between life and death. I was diagnosed as having osteomyelitis, which means "bone infection". Apparently what happens with osteomyelitis is that the infected blood seeks out a part of the body which is already weak for some reason. In my case that happened to be the socket in my left hip.
Don't ask me why I had a weak hip - cause I don't know the answer. I just did.

Anyway, they knew they had to operate fast to stop the infection before it traveled to a vital organ. That led to three months in hospital. The surgeon was Dr. Mowat, and I remember him as a very kind and soft-spoken man. He had to scrape out the infected bone, but then leave the large incision open so the nurses could pack it every day with fresh gauze……."

Penicillin, The Wonder Drug


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