Stuart Craddock had sinusitis, specifically a severe infection of the nasal antrum, during Fleming’s first penicillin clinical trial.
The treatment began on 9 January 1929, after Craddock joined Alexander Fleming’s laboratory as a research scholar. Fleming used a crude preparation of penicillin, but it produced no noticeable improvement. The infection was probably caused by Haemophilus influenzae, then often called the influenza bacillus, which Fleming had found was not susceptible to penicillin.
This early failure did not disprove penicillin’s antibacterial potential. It showed the limitations of both the crude preparation and its narrow activity against particular bacteria. Fleming’s work was especially effective against several Gram-positive organisms, including staphylococci and streptococci, but not every pathogen.
Craddock and another researcher, Frederick Ridley, eventually left Fleming’s laboratory, and Fleming struggled to isolate enough of the active substance. The later Oxford team led by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain solved much of the production and purification problem, turning Fleming’s laboratory observation into a usable medicine.