Abstract

THE United States Medal for Merit, the highest award made by the President of the United States to a civilian, has been presented to Sir Alexander Fleming and also to Sir Howard Florey for their work on penicillin. The citations accompanying the awards are as follow: Sir Alexander Fleming, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the United ^Nations during 1939-45. Sir Alexander has distinguished himself and benefited mankind through his fundamental researches and exceptional scientific contributions on the therapeutic use of penicillin, which were of major importance to the successful completion of the mission of the medical services in World War II. His personal and enthusiastic assistance to medical officers in the European Theatre of Operations greatly advanced the earlier application of the penicillin programme than would otherwise have been possible in that theatre, thereby contributing materially to the care of the sick and wounded soldiers and to the conservation of man-power.