TWO SAMPLES OF MOULD USED BY ALEXANDER FLEMMING TO DEVELOP PENICILLIN EMERGE AS PART OF A SALE OF HIS ARTEFACTS

Two samples of mould Sir Alexander Fleming used to produce penicillin are set to go under the hammer as part of an incredible archive of the scientist's belongings.

Both specimens of the yellow-green Penicillium Notatum fungus are contained on a glass disc and date back to the 1930s when Fleming was pioneering the life-saving discovery. 

Also included in the collection - estimated at some £15,000 - is a poignant letter from a father thanking the world-renowned scientist for saving his daughter's life.   

Both specimens of the yellow-green Penicillium Notatum fungus are contained on a glass disc and date back to the 1930s

Also included in the collection - estimated at some £15,000 - is a poignant letter from a father thanking the world-renowned scientist (pictured) for saving his daughter's life

The samples helped pave the way for the development of antibiotics which went on to save millions of lives across the world.

Also among the archive is a letter written from Fleming to a relative in which he says he in good health 'thanks to penicillin.'

The collection also contains the scientist's speech marking the 50th anniversary of the death of his own role model, French chemist Louis Pasteur.

It was assembled by Fleming's niece Mary Anne Johnston and now belongs to a direct descendant.

The archive of one of the moulds as well as letters, photographs and a journal is now set to sell for £8,000 at auction.

The second mould, on which Fleming inscribed, 'The mould that first made Penicillin,' is expected to sell for £6,000.

The letter of thanks in the archive was written by Norman Lake, a surgeon and father of a 10-year-old girl. 

He wrote in the 1950s: 'My little daughter, aged 10, and very dear to her mother and myself, is just recovering from a sharp attack of loba pneumonia and I am convinced as one can be that her recovery can be attributed to penicillin.

'I should be an ungrateful wretch if I did not write to express my gratitude. 

'As a clinician I know much of the gratitude and thanks which I receive from patients and their relatives should properly go to you.

'There are daily large numbers of people who feel a personal gratitude to you for your great work.'

Credit- Daily Mail Online