Farmer Fleming

[MissCroft]

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day,
while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help
coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.
There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy,
screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad
from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse
surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced
himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'

'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer
replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son
came to the door of the family hovel.

'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked.

'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.

'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education
my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no
doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.
Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time,
graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went
on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander
Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog
was stricken with pneumonia.
What saved his life this time? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill .. His son's name?


Sir Winston Churchill.

 

[Aardvark154]

Oh how I regret being the bearer of bad news to such a nice person and regarding such a great story.

However, Sir Alexander Fleming, himself described this as "A wondrous fable."* Further, Churchill was treated with Sulphapyridine a sulphonamide drug. It is highly probable that the information about the sulphonamide did not reach the newspapers because this class of drug had originated with Bayer in Germany and it was thought better to raise British morale by associating the British discovery, penicillin with Churchill's cure.

* see: Penicillin Man: Alexander Fleming and the Antibiotic Revolution

 

[MissCroft]

^^ Yeah I figured there was a chance it would be a fable. Damn these people who send me this stuff in my e-mail! LOL It's a nice little story though.

 

[bobistheowl]

...One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.
There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death....

MissCroft, in England, a bog generally refers to a bathroom or an outhouse. The story is much funnier in that context, and the farmer's actions that much nobler.

 

[Brill]

We should all choose to believe the original story and pass it on to our children as truth.

Non-believers would be put to death. :thumb:

 

[GPIDEAL]

Saw this story before via email too.