Mary Ethel Florey (née Hayter Reed),Baroness Florey (1 October 1900 – 10 October 1966) was an Australian doctor and medical scientist. Her work was instrumental in the discovery ofpenicillin. She was part of the team that ran the first trials on penicillin and first administered the drug in a human trial. Part of her research has been summarized in a four volume book on antibiotics published from 1952 to 1960.
Ethel Florey was born on 1 October 1900.
She obtained a Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and a Bachelor of Surgery (BS) from theUniversity of Adelaide in 1924.[1] In 1950, she obtained her Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Adelaide.
From 1939 to 1941, she worked at the Oxford Regional Blood Transfusion Service. Starting in 1941, she was part of the team working on clinical trials at the Radcliffe Infirmary, military hospitals and the Birmingham Accident Hospital. This is where she ran the first clinical trials of penicillin in 1941 along with her lab partner and husbandHoward Walter Florey, leading to him winning the Nobel Prize.
She published her research in a multivolume book titledThe Clinical Application of Antibiotics.
She worked along withHoward Walter Florey and carried out the first clinical trials of penicillin in 1941 at theRadcliffe Infirmary inOxford on the first patient, apolice constable from Oxford named Albert Alexander. Ethel Florey introduced police constable and first patient to Howard Florey.[2] The patient started to recover, but subsequently died because they were unable, at that time, to make enough penicillin. It was the Florey team who actually made a useful and effective drug out of penicillin, after the task had been abandoned as too difficult. Mary Ethel Florey's work included administrating and recording "the clinical progress of the first large-scale trial of 187 cases of sepsis".[3]
Her major academic contribution is a four volume book titledThe Clinical Application of Antibiotics.[4] The first volume is dedicated to Penicillin and her research on that topic. TheBritish Journal of Surgery published a review on the book in 1953 reading: "It is a veritable encyclopaedia for the use and abuse of penicillin. It surely must take its place in the library of every hospital as valuable work of reference, not only for the clinician but also the pathologist. The author and publisher are to be congratulated on its format and method of presentation."[5] The volume on Penicillin also offered examples of misuse of antibiotics and warnings on dosage.
Mary Florey metHoward Walter Florey in 1921 in Adelaide and married him on 19 October 1926 as the couple moved to London.[1] According to theAustralian Dictionary of Biography, "the marriage was to be unhappy, due in part to her poor health and in part to his intolerance".[6] They had two children, Paquita Mary Joanna andCharles du Vé (also a physician).[7][8]
Her husband Howard Florey, who won the Nobel prize for his role in the discovery of penicillin, said of Mary Florey: "It must never be forgotten that if it wasn’t for Ethel penicillin would not have been introduced into medical practice when it was".[2]
Her photography is in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery.[9]
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