If you have an ear infection, your doctor may give you penicillin. It's a common kind of antibiotic medicine.
Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by a Scottish scientist who proved it could treat and cure all kinds of troublesome bacterial infections. The idea of using various molds to combat illness had actually been around since the Middle Ages, but penicillin was the first such medicine to be made on a large scale. The Latin root, penicillus, or "paintbrush," describes the shape of the mold cells that were used to created the original penicillin.
