(100) However, Fleming's research on penicillin did not stop, even when his assistants had exhausted their brains and had to give up the work, he was the only one who persisted.
(101) 11 years later, Fleming's paper finally caught the attention of William Frawley, a pathologist at the Oxford University in England. He read the article carefully, analyzed Fleming's successes and failures, and decided to continue his experiment.
(102) Frawley knew that much arduous work and collective efforts were needed before penicillin could be applied to treat diseases. He talked about his idea at a meeting of scientists and got support from all attendants.
(103) A joint experiment began. There were scholars from different disciplines, and Frawley led the whole work. Bacteriologists were responsible for bacterial cultures, and chemists for the refining of rare penicillin by all means.
(104) From a large, deep culture pot of filtrate, they could only extract a little droplet of penicillin. After tenacious efforts, they eventually amassed a spoonful of penicillin, which was thousands of times more effective than those made by Fleming.
(105) Fleming was overjoyed after hearing the news, and went to Oxford at once. They exchanged research results, established a close partnership, and agreed to work together to scale the heights of science.
(106) Science requires calmness. Penicillin, which had such a strong bactericidal power, might kill people. Animal testing were started immediately. Cat, rat, mouse, rabbit and guinea pig were all injected with penicillin solution.
(107) As time went by, none of these healthy animals showed any signs of poisoning. So, would penicillin change inside human body and lose its ability to kill bacteria?
(108) Frawley selected 50 mice and injected them with streptococcus which could kill them. And then, he injected 25 of the mice with penicillin. The other 25 mice were not given any treatment. The scientists observed the mice carefully.
(109) Three hours passed, and then six hours. The 25 mice that had not received any treatment died, one after another. The other 25 were wilted, with one died. The scientists' hearts was in their throats.