The Museum of Medicine and Health : Penicillin Syringe

The Museum of Medicine and Health

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This reservoir penicillin syringe, a ‘Type D52. Mk11’, was made by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) from a Bren gun oil can in 1944. It held multiple doses of penicillin and was used in field hospitals to treat wounded soldiers during the Second World War. The “D52” meant that it was made 52 days after “D-Day”. It was donated by Professor George Archibald Grant Mitchell OBE, Adviser in Penicillin and Chemotherapy for 21 Army Group. Lt.Col. Mitchell served in the Royal Army Medical Corp (RAMC) in the Middle East, North Africa and the invasion of Europe. He pioneered penicillin use in military surgery, and his work with the RAMC is recorded in the article “Penicillin Therapy and Control in 21 Army Group” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1946. He was appointed as Professor of Anatomy at The University of Manchester in 1946 and was Dean of the University’s Medical School from 1955 to 1960. He specialised in neuroanatomy and published numerous papers and books including Anatomy of the Automatic Nervous System (1953).</p>