Penicillin.Past. Present And Future -- Fourteen years ago, professor Fleming of the Chair of Bacteriology at London University discovered that the mould Penicillin Notatum produced a substance with great anti-bacterial properties. In 1938, professor Florey, Dr. Chain, and the team of scientists at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology Oxford, decided to investigate the properties of substances produced by moulds and bacteria. They were impressed by the potentialities of Penicillin By 1940 they had succeeded in isolating the substance had proved by laboratory and Clinical trials that it was non-poisonous and able to prevent the growth of many virulent microbes and to cure a variety of serious diseases. September 5, 1951. (Photo by British Official Photograph).