In 1939 , Australian scientist Howard Florey ( later Baron Florey ) and a team of researchers ( Ernst Boris Chain , Edward Abraham , Arthur Duncan Gardner , Norman Heatley , Margaret Jennings , J. Orr-Ewing and G. Sanders ) at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology , University of Oxford made progress in showing the '' in vivo '' bactericidal action of penicillin . In 1940 , they showed that penicillin effectively cured bacterial infection in mice . In 1941 , they treated a policeman , Albert Alexander , with a severe face infection ; his condition improved , but then supplies of penicillin ran out and he died . Subsequently , several other patients were treated successfully . In December 1942 , survivors of the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston were the first burn patients to be successfully treated with penicillin
Cocoanut Grove fire
Cocoanut Grove fire
Penicillin