1970, Ronald Hare, The Birth of Penicillin and the Disarming of Microbes; quoted in 1979, Steven Lehrer, Explorers of the Body But one thing the place did possess, and that in abundance, was its smell: an all-pervading odour of hot oil reminiscent of an engine room, which was produced by the heated oilbaths in which we sterilised our syringes.
Source: wiktionary