Alexander Fleming — "If penicillin can cure those that are ill, Spanish sherry can bring the dead bac…"
If penicillin can cure those that are ill, Spanish sherry can bring the dead back to life.
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More from Alexander Fleming
"I am only one of many who have contributed to the development of penicillin."
"The public looks for miracles. We scientists look for facts."
"The mould grew, and then I saw the clear space around it."
"I have been asked to say a few words about the discovery of penicillin. I must confess that I have been asked to do this so often that I am beginning to be a little tired of it."
"The discovery of penicillin was a series of small observations, not a single eureka moment."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Fleming jokes that while penicillin saves the sick, Spanish sherry is so reviving it can resurrect the dead. It is a playful exaggeration contrasting medical science with the simple pleasure of a beloved drink, suggesting that good wine lifts the spirit in ways medicine cannot. The line celebrates sherry's restorative reputation and pokes fun at his own world-changing discovery by ranking it second to a glass of fortified wine.
Relevance to Alexander Fleming
Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 at St. Mary's Hospital, launching the antibiotic era and earning the 1945 Nobel Prize. Known for dry Scottish wit, he enjoyed travel, social drinking, and was famously honored in Jerez, Spain, where sherry producers toasted him for saving lives. The quip reflects his humility about his accomplishment and his genuine fondness for sherry, gifted to him in gratitude by Spanish vintners whose industry he frequented.
The era
Fleming spoke in the mid-twentieth century, when penicillin was transforming WWII battlefield medicine and postwar public health, slashing deaths from infection. Spain's sherry trade, recovering from civil war and Franco-era isolation, leaned on celebrity endorsements to rebuild export markets. Jerez bodegas embraced Fleming as a hero, erecting a statue to him in 1964. The remark captures an era when scientists were public icons and Mediterranean culture was being rediscovered by a war-weary world.
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