Research Scientist. He is the French physician who first made the discovery of mold curing diseases, which led to the antibiotic named Penicillin. This was achieved thirty-two years before Alexander Fleming's research led to him becoming famous for the discovery of Penicillin. For an unknown reason, there is a tendency to give credit to a single individual for having made a particular discovery, when in fact, in reality many contributed to the find.Little is known about Duchesne's life prior to medical school. In 1894 he entered the Military Health Service School of Lyons graduating in 1897. During his time at school, he became interested in the workings of microbes, which led to his discovery of mold growth on the horse saddles. The mold appeared to help heal saddle sores on the backs of horses. From this observation, his experiment began with the use of guinea pigs being injected with the typhoid and E. Coli bacteria. He was getting positive results when the guinea pigs were injected with the green mold, Penicillin glaucum. He did not know that there were 354 species with the genius Penicillium with only 8 producing penicillin. At the age of 23 years old, he wrote his doctorate thesis, “Concurrance Vitale,” on his finds, but being young, he was an unknown in the medical community, thus not recognized by the Pasteur Institute. Even though he attempted to do more research without the support of the Pasteur Institute, his military service prevented him from doing any. He continued to serve in a military hospital. In 1901 he married Rosa Lassalas, who died two years later from tuberculosis. Brokenhearted and grieving, his determination to do research declined. He was diagnosed with a serious lung infection, which may have been tuberculosis, in 1904 and for the rest of his life, would be a patient in and out of a sanitarium at Amelie les Bains. Antibiotics could have cured his infection if available. He is buried next to his wife. In 1945, Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey, and Ernst Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize “for the discovery of Penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases.” Fleming worked with the species of Penicullium notatum. For Duchesne, it was 1946 before his work was rediscovered proving his experiments documented mold cures diseases. French scientists, Gaston Ramon and R. Richou, published a summary of his medical school thesis in the French medical professional periodical “The Progress Medicine,” in 1946. Three years later, he received international recognition for his pioneer work toward developing the antibiotic, Penicillin, by the French National Academy of Medicine. Several articles have been written about his 19th century research in more recent professional periodicals. In 1974, Monaco issued a postage stamp in his honor. In 1999 the British medical journal, “Lancet,” published a tribute to Duchesne and called him “The father of antibiotic therapy.”