WI Early Penicilin

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Let's assume that somebody came up with penicilin earlier. As early the Middle Ages or as late as Neo-Classical (1700s) period. It was recorded that some wise women and barber surgeons knew about the connection between the mold and preventing infection. Somebody could write it down, and experiment with various types of mold to find the correct one...

So what would be the effects?
How it would influence the scientific progress?
 
Sounds ASB.Even if not,the bacteria is going to acquire resistance to penicillin quite soon.

This. Also, without germ theory it is quite difficult to know what to treat with antibiotics (not to mention that the importance of quarantine, barrier care, sanitation etc. is needed for antibiotics to be effective).

Without a decent chemical/pharmaceutical industry, you would also have problems of actually producing the penicillin. Just slapping Penicillium mold on a wound is not a way to get happy patients (and since "natural" penicillin isn't taken up much from the gut, that's what you'll be limited to). Not to speak of refrigeration of the penicillin that you actually managed to make, though that might be solvable by ice-houses and such.
 
How early could it be then? 1890s?

Ooo, apparently the first artificially made ice dated to 1755, but it was only a lab setup, so says wikipedia.

Germ theory of disease, the fact that it took until the 19th century for this to be a big thing was a little depressing to learn.

So 1890s probably is the earliest practical date, unless you can move up the germ theory. I'm really bummed out that that and not refrigeration tech is the big road block.
 
Around 1900 is the earliest you could see penicillin. By then germ theory is pretty well established, and you are seeing folks like Paul Ehrlich working on ways to treat diseases with medicines targeting a specific microbe - in this case Salvarsan (aresenical) for syphilis. The technology to produce penicillin is there - actually the ability to figure out how to produce lots came from the brewing industry.

The problem is delivering IV penicillin safely, there also needs to be developed the oral versions. Even worse, penicillin is only effective against certain types of bacteria (basically some gram positive ones, a few gram negative) and given the lax medication laws in 1900 almosr everywhere, expect to see it widely abused/used inappropriately even before diluted doses are out. The result will be even worse antibiotic resistance than we see now and the mechanism of resistance will not be understood by 1910-1920 medical science.
 
Well there's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Duchesne

who submitted a thesis on Penicillium, and even used extract to cure guinea pigs, in 1897, so if people had noticed, if his thesis had been published, that would be a good start.

Getting widespread use might take longer. During WWII, they had to engage in massive industrial scale research to scale up production to any kind of useful levels (penicillium likes to grow on flat surfaces and most strains don' t do well in vats, which the easiest way to get volume production).

Also, of course, the earlier you get significant production, the earlier you get resistance. Having Penicillin resistant bacteria around during WWII and maybe no other antibiotic, would be ... nasty.
 
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