The Cavalcade of America, presented by DuPont. The story of Walter Reed, the fight against yellow fever. Starring in the role of Walter Reed, the distinguished radio actor John McIntyre. The DuPont Company, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, present the Cavalcade of America. Dedicated to those men and women in every walk of life who have shaped the destiny of America in the past, and to the youth of today who will shape the destiny of America in the future. Havana, the year 1900. Focal point of a scourge that had spread its tentacles westward around the Gulf to New Orleans, and on through Texas to Veracruz. Northward from Florida to the Chesapeake, and south and east as far as a gull could fly, over the islands to the southern continent. Its name was yellow fever, and no man knew how it had come there, or how it would pass away. But one fact was certain, in Havana it made a permanent home. Through the narrow old world streets, through the low-lying misted jungle, through the warm uplands outside Camaros, and the salt marshes streaking the shore, its deadly pace was the same. And it struck where it would, the young and the old, the healthy and the infirm. And men and women crouched like bundles of rags in corners of a great city, half savage in fear and in illness, awaiting with certain and hideous death that stalked in the night without reason or pity, yellow fever. One night in the fall of 1900, lights blazed outside Camaros in one building of the darkened American army barracks, the camp hospital. In the bunkhouse below, all was quiet, the men were sleeping. Oh, what's the, hey. Oh, what's that? Skeeter's been bothering me all night. Hey, there he is, he's after you now, get him. Oh, Mr. Man. Hey, will you guys be quiet? Yeah, what's the idea of keeping us awake? Oh, you wasn't asleep anyways. Who says I wasn't? Well, keep quiet, that's all I'm asking. Yeah, quiet. Who do you guys think you are? Well, I'm the guy that's going to ram your bridge work down your throat in one minute flat. All right, you ask for it. Climb out of that bunk and put him up. Oh, did you think I wouldn't? Oh, shut up and go to bed, both of you. I'll take care of you later. Well, start something. Go ahead, start something. Go on, Rolf, let him have it. Not so fast. Yeah, and there's more where that come from. Now get up and take it. What's the matter, you had enough? Uh-oh. Ten, shut. Well, what's all the racket about? Well, sir, the mosquitoes was bothering a couple of us. Mosquitoes? Yes, sir, you know, sir, how mosquitoes. I know you've waken the fever patients up in the hospital. Mosquitoes, not much excuse for that, is it? Is it? No, sir. Now who started this? Oh, I guess I did, sir. Very well. Private Emmett, you will report first thing in the morning for extra duty. Yes, sir. As you were, men. Sergeant. Yes, sir. What's the matter with this man? I caught a chill, sir. I didn't feel so good after mass. Sergeant, get that man and carry his cot up the hospital right away. Yes, sir. Hey, Smith. Yeah. Give me a hand here. Yeah. Come on. All right. Well, there's another one down with it. Yeah, he was fine yesterday all day. Pretty soon there won't be enough left to get up a game of poker. Oh, I'm getting some sleep. Hey, don't signal him, will you? Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Gorgas. Oh, what is it? Dr. Reed is outside. Shall I show him in? Yes, yes. Show him in at once. This way, doctor. Come in, doctor. I came straight from the boat, Dr. Gorgas. Well, it's good to see you, Reed. And I want to tell you, I'm mighty glad Washington finally appointed a commission to help us out. Well, I think we've got the right man, doctor. Mazir and AgriMonte and Carroll. I, uh, things are pretty bad, I take it. Yes, Dr. Reed, they are. How do you account for the spread of the epidemic? I wish to heaven I could account for it. Look at these stacks of files. New cases reported just today. Soon as we finish cleaning up a neighborhood, it strikes again. Now there's trouble with the natives. They think our sanitary squads are causing the epidemic. These reports don't seem to indicate the sanitary measures are helping much. We do what we can. But it's a big problem, especially in the slum areas. You'll have to see for yourself. Yes, I know. But aren't the better sections suffering even worse? How do you account for that? Many of the natives have survived yellow fever and are immune. The better section you refer to is largely American and foreign population. Of course, there are other possible explanations. There's the theory of immune carriers like typhoid carriers. And there's old Dr. Finley's mosquito theory. Yes, I was interested in that. Well, you'd better put it out of your mind. It's nothing but a very clever exercise in inductive logic. He hasn't one shred of scientific proof. Neither had Pasteur at the beginning. Well, I can assure you Finley is no Pasteur. You'll get nowhere following impractical theories, Dr. Reed. You may be right, Dr. Gorgas. But sometimes we have to take chances. Perhaps, perhaps it may be necessary to experiment with human beings. Oh, no, no. That mistake has been made before. They tried it with vaccine in India and Africa. Look what happened there. Naturally, the vaccine was obviously wrong. But it seems to me that points definitely to infection via the bloodstream. Old Finley argues that in favor of his mosquito theory. But it's a shot in the dark. We're all shooting in the dark, doctor. Have you noticed that farther north, say in Philadelphia, yellow fever epidemics invariably end with freezing weather? All right. But couldn't that still mean that other insects, not only mosquitoes, could carry yellow fever too? No, Dr. Reed, I'm afraid we'd better stick to methods we know. Fumigate, burn the clothing, enforce the strictest methods of wholesale sanitation. There's no reason why that work can't be continued, Dr. Gorgas. But I can't do it alone. Dr. Lezere has already deserted me for laboratory work. And we have no time for that. This is an emergency. Yes, you're right, doctor. This is an emergency. So there's no better time for laboratory work. Good day, sir. My name is Walter Reed, Dr. Finley. I just arrived from the state's yellow fever commission. Ah, welcome to my house, Dr. Reed. Come in. Come in. Thank you. This is my laboratory through here, Dr. Reed. Oh, yes. I'm interested in your mosquito theory of yellow fever, Dr. Finley. Alas, that is incomplete. There is little I can show you. Here. Here is my best specimen at present. A female stegomyia. Hmm. Infectious? Deadly. What are you supposed to do with this mosquito, Dr. Finley? I do not know. For years I have studied the habits of this stegomyia mosquito. It is now necessary only to prove that the bite of this mosquito is the only cause of yellow fever. Unfortunately, I do not know where to go from here. The next step would be to let the mosquito sting me. But I have had yellow fever and I am immune. So it is still a theory. People only laugh at it. I don't laugh at it, Dr. Finley. Oh? Then perhaps, perhaps you are the man I have been waiting for, Dr. Reed. I may be. I don't know. You are not yet convinced, but you will be. I am certain of it. Aye, Dr. Reed. I am old. Too discouraged for the bold and courageous action that must be taken. I am going to give you this, Dr. Reed. It is my legacy to you. I, I hardly know what to say, Dr. Finley. Don't say anything. It is a curious gift. Mosquito eggs. You, Dr. Reed, you must carry on. Go many steps further than I have been able to. And perhaps someday there will be people who will not laugh, but will hear you and listen. Goodbye, my friend. Thank you, Dr. Finley. Goodbye. Music Now try to get some rest. I can't stand this. Nurse. Yes, yes. What is it? Cleveland. Goodbye, Dolly. Hey, Major. Guard duty, sir. Oh, nurse. Here, here. Let me fix your pillow. Just try to get some rest now. Oh, sure. I must wake up for the barracks. Now there are enough of us to play poker. Doctor. Yes, nurse. I think you'd better look at this patient. Delirious. Good morning. He's falling into a coma. Let's see the chart. Here, doctor. Is this Private Emmett's bed nurse? Yes, Dr. Reed. Good morning, Dr. Reed. Morning. Just looking at this fellow's chart. Curious case, Dr. Gorgas. I've just been down to headquarters checking up on this man. Usual symptoms. Pretty routine case, doctor. Not quite routine, Dr. Gorgas. This soldier comes from the barracks. He got in a fight over there one night and was court-martialed and sentenced to guard duty. He hasn't been near contamination at all since he was under strict discipline. And hadn't been near the hospital or any of the infected areas for over three weeks. That's curious. In fact, I'm convinced. It's quite obvious that he couldn't possibly have caught yellow fever by contagion. Dr. Gorgas. Oh, Dr. Gorgas. Yes, Dr. Luzer. Front office reports a serious shortage of bedding. We can't go on burning the used linen. We'll have to sterilize it. No, we'll get some more somewhere. We can't take any more chances. But the procedure hasn't shown any results, doctor. We can't take any chances. Very well, doctor. Dr. Luzer. Yes, Dr. Reed. Do you agree with Dr. Gorgas that direct contagion is spreading this epidemic? Well, frankly, I don't. What does Carroll think? He agrees with me. Then there are three of us. Dr. Luzer, I'm going to ask a favor of you. Go and fetch Carroll. And meet me at my laboratory in half an hour. Music Gentlemen, I believe you're familiar with Dr. Finley's theory that the bite of the female stegomyoskeleton is the means and the only means of transmitting yellow fever. Yes, doctor. I confess I was skeptical myself at first. Now, I think there's something to it. So do I. And I, Dr. Reed. But what have we got to...what we've got to do now is to prove it. Gentlemen, I have here three test tubes containing stegomyomusketos. They were hatched from eggs Dr. Finley gave me and have bitten yellow fever patients. I propose that we allow ourselves to be bitten by them. Dr. Reed. Yes, Dr. Luzer. I don't think you should take part in this experiment. Why not? Because you have to go to Washington to make your report. And on that report may hinge the government's further aid in helping us down here. We're going to need that badly, Dr. Reed. Luzer's right. The two of us can do it. Record the findings and check on each other while you're away. No. No, I want to be in on this too. Perhaps we'd better postpone it. Dr. Reed, we might as well be realistic about this. You know there's no time to lose in fighting this yellow fever. You leave it to Carol and myself and when you come back we'll have saved time. And in the end that means lives. Lives. It's the best way, Dr. Reed, for all concerned. Very well, gentlemen. I'm leaving tonight. You'll receive written instructions in the morning. Goodbye and good luck. All right, Luzer. No use delaying, is there? No. Ready? Inside of the wrist. Well, wasn't much to that. Now it's my turn. All right, Cal, go ahead. Are you ready? I'm ready. Tell me what happened, Carol. Well, I hardly know how to tell you. So much has happened while you were gone. Well, suppose you start at the beginning. You both followed out the instructions. To the latter. Then we waited. The air showed no effects. On the second day I developed symptoms. Respiration increased slightly. Pulse was faster, temperature 102. Nausea and all the rest. I was pretty sick, but in 13 days I recovered completely. And Luzer? No symptoms whatsoever. Respiration, pulse, temperature normal. Nothing happened as a result of his bite. Well, there must be a period of time when that stegomyre mosquito is not infectious. Now we've got to find out when it is. But go on about Luzer. Well, five days after I had recovered, he developed yellow fever. A week later, as you know, he was dead. That delay is what makes it baffling. Unless he was bitten again later. Well, he was reed accidentally. He recalled later that it was a stegomyre. Now we're sure of the type. Yes, you're right, Carol. But there ought to be a way we can experiment on a large scale and control it from beginning to end. An experiment that would take days. An experiment using not one but a number of volunteers. Now wait, Reed. You're asking to experiment with human lives. Luzer's dead already. Where could we get the danger? Yes, Luzer's dead. But his death was far from useless. For he's put us on the right track, Carol. If we only follow it up, I'll see General Wood. If I can get his permission, I'll ask for volunteers. Because we can't stop now. We must go on. As commanding officer of the United States Expeditionary Force in Cuba, I hereby authorize Major Walter Reed to call for volunteers for the practice of any medical experiment and the construction of a quarantine camp under his command to be known as Camp Lazare. Leonard Wood General. At ease. Men, 17 of you here, have volunteered blindly for something that may be more than any human being should be asked to do. Major Reed, we don't know what your plans are, but I think all of us want to clear this thing up as much as you do. Sure, Major. There's only one way to do that. Double quick. Yes, Mr. Wright. Thank you, men. But you're entitled to know what you're up against so that you may withdraw if you wish. Now, no man can say with any certainty that this experiment will succeed. But you and I know that horror and death have descended upon us and we're helpless, absolutely helpless. A mile and a half outside of Quemados, outside the radius of the infection, we've constructed a building at Camp Lazare. The building is divided in half with mosquito netting. In half of it, one group of you will live for some days a normal existence, but under the strictest quarantine. And the other half, the rest of you, will submit to the bites by infected mosquitoes. You know what that means. Well, Major, I guess we're all ready to go through with it. Men, if the work at Camp Lazare sheds one ray of light into the darkness of this plague that surrounds us, you will have the gratitude of the whole human race. Needless to say, whatever the outcome, your government will reward you in a more practical way. I've seen to that. Major Eden, we want you to understand one thing. What's that? We're not doing this for money. Gentlemen, I salute you. Camp Lazare, a collection of supply tents and makeshift frame buildings on a dry, windswept knoll above Quemados, looking more like a construction camp for a road gang than an experimental laboratory. But within the unpainted board walls of one structure, human life and deadly plague dwelt side by side, companion separated by a flimsy net, one group sharing the same roof, breathing the same air, and with those on one side asleep or awake, dreading the fever of those on the other. At the end of ten watchful days, it was a pale and haggard Walter Reed who entered the shack to check again the results of his experiment. Hello, boys. Hello, Doc. You know Dr. Gorgas? Yes, indeed we do. Well, how do you feel? We feel fine, Doc, but not so much fun looking through that wire there and seeing what's happened to those other fellows. How much longer do you intend to keep this up, Dr. Reed? Until you agree to believe your own eyes, Dr. Gorgas. Listen, boys, I think we're about finished with this. Don't feel too badly about the boys in there. First of all, I think they'll recover. And when they do, they're all in line for decoration, for heroism in line of duty. I wish you'd go in and tell them that, Doc. It'll make them feel better, I think. I'm going to right now. Dr. Gorgas? I'll wait here for you, Doctor. Thanks. Here's a chart, Dr. Reed. Thank you, nurse. Fisher shows improvement. Which one is he? Over there, Doctor. He's feeling pretty homesick. Maybe you could cheer him up. Hello, soldier. Hi, Doc. What's up? The experiment was successful, son. How do you feel today? Better, I think. I'm glad you figured it all out, Doc. You boys are the ones who did the fighting. And let me tell you, you put up a great fight. You can't fight the fever. Very good, Doc. We won't have to fight yellow fever anymore. You've licked it. And what you've done is far, far braver than soldiers who fight on the field of battle. And that's the kind of honors you're going to have when you get well, all of you. I've got a sweetheart in Atlanta, Doc. She'd be right proud to hear that. If somebody had write her a letter for me. Nurse, do you think you could find time for that letter? Indeed I will, Doctor. When you get well, you'll have a good long leave for your honeymoon. Thanks, Doc. You're all right. So long, boy. So long, Doc. Well, charts all show improvement, Dr. Gorgas. Well, that's some satisfaction, but what if you do lose some of these men? They'll know it was worth it. We've licked yellow fever. We know what causes it. A mosquito. A mosquito, yes. But you still haven't proved that contamination doesn't cause the disease, too. Then I'll do that, too. Well, how, may I ask? Dr. Gorgas, there's a shack down the hill here that's stacked high with rotten and filthy bedding and dressings of yellow fever patients. I'll send this non-infected group down there and keep them shut up with that dirty, contaminated stuff for three weeks if necessary. And you'll see, none of them will come down with yellow fever. It's a dreadful responsibility you're taking, Reed. You're risking your entire future in the Army, in medicine, even as a free citizen of the United States. I'm not risking anything. You see, I'm right. If one of those men does die from yellow fever in that shack, I'll resign my post, and you may indict me for manslaughter. Happy New Year, boys. Well, come on out of that hole and stretch your legs. This is the beginning of the 20th century. The 20th century? Gosh. And you mean we're really getting out of here for good? Of course. Don't you want to come out? Boy, oh boy, do we! Just one thing before you go down to celebrate, boys. Dr. Gorgas wants to look you over. No, Reed, it won't be necessary. You've proved your case. Well, thanks, boys, and congratulations. Your courage is something the world will never forget. Well, see you later, Doc. Happy New Year. Come on, boys. Well, Dr. Reed, I give you my New Year resolution to destroy every yellow jack mosquito in Cuba. May the first decades of this new century see yellow fever wiped off the face of the earth. Dr. Gorgas, the work you do here will be remembered in history. It was you who showed the way, Reed. You had the courage to take heroic risks. I wonder if any of us, even Lazare, who gave his life, or those boys who would have given theirs, would claim credit for what's happened here. I like to think there's a force greater than any of us. Call it what you like, inspiration, awareness, or the principle of human knowledge. And the most we as men of science can hope to do is to keep the torch aflame and hand it intact to those who will be young when we are old. A mysterious enemy came by night and brought death from the unknown. But science sought out that enemy and found it in a tiny buzzing creature. Man's knowledge won, and in this triumph of man's intellect, is Walter Reed, who stands as a leader in the Cavalcade of America. Thank you, John McIntyre. And now our story from the wonder world of chemistry. Tonight is the last program in our fifth series of Cavalcade of America broadcasts. We hope to return again in the fall with a new series and with new stories for you from the wonder world of chemistry. For DuPont Laboratories never cease in their efforts to make old products better and to create more new products for everyday needs. To the chemist's mind, nothing is ever finished, nothing is ever perfect. Research work will continue on even as new product as nylon in an effort to find additional ways to make further use of this newest triumph of science. Research work continues on neoprene, seeking ways to make this man-made rubber even lower in price. And refrigerants such as Freon, plastics such as Lucite, will likewise continue to receive the chemist's increasing study. One new product from DuPont Laboratories that will come to you next fall is a new non-evaporating antifreeze. This new product, perfected by DuPont's forward-looking research, will be named Xerox. Even now it is being manufactured and shipped for use in freezing weather. It isn't optimism that is keeping men and scientists at work making Xerox now, but a sure realization that it will be needed in the coming fall and winter. With similar forward thinking, our laboratories are likewise working on new paints and finishes, lower cost fertilizers, better dye stuff. For the needs that justify the research that brought these products to their present state of development, we'll continue to justify the research that will make them better and better. And eventually, it is the hope of every research scientist that his way of solving problems may become the common heritage of all people. And it may be that in the final analysis, the greatest gifts of science are not only the material products, but the adoption by mankind of the scientist's way of life, his calm and reasoning approach to the problems which inevitably surround us. And now the Cavalcade of America's historian, Dr. Frank Monahan of Yale University. The Cavalcade of America is the greatest epic march in the history of the world, the upward surge of millions of men and women in search of freedom, opportunity, and human happiness. Millions have come to these shores of the New World to find the precious things denied them in the old. Their successful quest and their defense of life, liberty, and happiness is the dynamic motif of the great chronicle. And today, America stands as a nation of greatest achievement in education, science, industry, and general well-being. The high courage, the intelligence, the good will, the deep faith of millions of men and women, obscure and great, have made this nation what it is. Cavalcade has presented dramatic episodes of these qualities in action, their struggles, and their victories. History has made us great, and so we shall remain if we keep faith with that glorious tradition. It is history, said Robert E. Lee, that teaches us to hope. When visiting the World's Bear this summer, by all means stop in at the DuPont exhibit, where some hint of what is to come is given by demonstrations of what chemistry has accomplished in the past. There, a friendly staff will be especially happy to welcome you as a Cavalcade listener and answer any questions you may have about products referred to on these broadcasts. And so, with confidence in what the future can hold for us, we say goodbye and good luck until fall. Meanwhile, we will continue our unceasing program of making better things for better living through chemistry. The orchestra and the original musical effects of the Cavalcade of America runs the direction of Don Bush. Basil Isdale sending best wishes to the DuPont. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
