The antibiotic action of green mould, from which penicillin was
subsequently obtained, was first discovered by the Russian physicians
V.A. Manasscin and A.G. Polotebnov as far back as the 70's of last
century. Thirty-five years later V.G.
Tanakovsky, a Russian veterinary, published a paper on the results of
his experiments which showed that a certain form of mould killed the
microbe causing typhus. The science of antibiotics owes its
developments first and foremost to the researches of Ily a Mechnikov,
the outstanding Russian biologists, who discovered that certain types of
bacteria arc dislodged by other in the intestines of both man and
animals. Mechnikov, rightly called by his
contemporaries “the great humanist”, devoted much effort to the problem
of combating premature aging of the human organism.
Investigations established that lactic bacteria, which cause the
souring of milk, answer the purpose.
Me found a medium in which lactic bacteria grew rapidly.