The Cabocade of America, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry, presents Thomas Mitchell and George Koloran in The Story of Penicillin. Before we begin our play, here's news about the yet acquainted author, DuPont paint dealers all over the country are featuring. Your dealer is now advertising a special coupon worth 25 cents when you purchase one gallon or more of DuPont's Speed Easy wall finish. Speed Easy comes in 11 colors. Be sure to see the three new spring colors, Empire Green, Dusky Rose, and Twilight Blue. Choose one of these soft glowing shades for the room you've been intending to fix up. DuPont Speed Easy covers even figured wallpaper quickly, easily, and economically. Now you can redecorate most any room for less than $2.75. Remember, Speed Easy dries within one hour. So look up the name of the DuPont paint dealer in your telephone directory this evening or tomorrow. Get one of the new coupons worth 25 cents when you purchase one gallon or more of this new easy to use wall finish. If there isn't a DuPont dealer in your community, drop us a postcard and we'll be glad to send you the name of the nearest place you can buy Speed Easy. Just address a card to the DuPont company, Radio Section, Wilmington, Delaware. And now for this evening's play. Tonight the DuPont Cavalcade brings you a story of victory out of the long and unceasing war, the war of the scientists' soldiers of life against the forces of disease and death, the story of the discovery of the life preserving chemical agent, penicillin. DuPont presents the story of penicillin starring Thomas Mitchell as the narrator and George Koloros as Dr. Howard W. Florey on the Cavalcade of America. Thanks. I am come this time only to tell a story. Listen, for I am that one to whom each man must listen at the last, when his ears are deaf to any other voice, and in the darkness he receives with silent thankfulness the blessed sacrament of timeless rest I bring. And yet, to delay my coming for a little time has been the inmemorial struggle of mankind, wherein there have been heroes, traitors, and a few great leaders, towering above all the rest. Of such a leader I speak now. You will be grateful to him, as I am, for he has eased my sorry labors from henceforth, even unto the last generation. Doctor, please. Doctor, doctor. Doctor, she calls you doctor. Doctor, doctor, doctor. She calls you doctor. She's dying. We know of no cure. Is there no comfort left for her but mine? We've tried everything known to medical science. There's no cure for her. But, doctor, in the earth there is a cure. Look to the earth. The earth? Yes, in the earth. Listen, and in the fourth verse of the 38th chapter of the book of Ecclesiasticus, it is written, the Most High have created medicines out of the earth, and the wise men will not abhor them. What does it mean? Pasteur knew what it meant. Doctor, listen to Louis Pasteur. In the soil? Yes, there is something in the soil, a substance, an organism, a growth, something fatal to the deadliest microbe. In the earth itself? Listen, doctor. Anthrax, the deadly bacillus anthracis. In some soils it lives, it flourishes. In other soils it does not live, it dies. Yes, there is something in the soil fatal to this microbe. What could it be? What can it be? I only know that it is there. I have done my part. My time is past. Others must find it. You must find it. It is there, such a weapon for the struggle as we have never known. Doctor, doctor, doctor. Music Look to the earth, Dr. Flore. Your cure is there. With all your skill and all your knowledge, and all the wondrous instruments of your science, seek it out, and quickly, work quickly, doctor, your time is running short. We stand no longer now at the bedside of the peacetime sick. We stand amidst the wreckage of bombs shattered London. We stand at Dunkirk, you and I, answering as best we can the dread question on the lips of ten thousand stricken men. We stand at the bedside of an English soldier who wipes the cold sweat from his pale young face and tries to smile. I'm comfortable, thank you, sir. Do you want a cigarette? I'd like it very much. Here you are. Ah, that's good. I'm cold out there by my pals. Yes, I know. But you must rest now. It's not so easy. They keep bringing them in, don't they? Two hundred in the last hour. Like me? Some of them worse. I have a pal among them. He wouldn't know about a chap called Bentley, Ted Bentley. He caught a Jerry bullet in the leg. Would you know about him? Yes, I know about him. He isn't Ted, he... You can tell me, I'd like to know. He was gone this morning. It was only a leg wound, just a leg wound. The wound was infected. Blood poison was being set in while he was waiting to be taken off the beach. Poor old Ted. Why did it happen? I saw them give him sulfur on the beach. Didn't that work? No, Alfie, it didn't work. It's a good medicine, isn't it? That's what they say. Yes, Alfie, it's a fine medicine. One of the best there is. One of the most powerful. But there are some germs it cannot kill. Germs that get into wounds and bone cells and bring on poisoning. Is that what those lads have? Poison them? Yes. They call it septicemia. Well, maybe I've gotten a call to ask, but you seem to know quite a bit about all this. What are the odds for them? Must I tell you, Alfie? Oh, you should tell me. It's a war. You don't keep back such things in a war. What are the odds? Seven out of ten. Seven will lose. Only three will win. Even with the sulfur drugs? Yes, Alfie. If all the sulfur drugs, the odds would have been nine out of ten. From septicemia, Alfie? Thank you. Now will you tell me? If you want to know. What are the odds for me? What have I got? Septicemia, Alfie. Oh. You remember, Alfie, Dr. Floyd, when he closed his eyes and put his hand in mine and spoke no more? He is one you remember among thousands. Yet these were not my triumphs and your failures. It was only the odds. Those overwhelming odds that determined whether men would stay with you or go with me. And only a miracle could turn that fateful mathematics to your favor. And yet that miracle had already come to pass. Do you remember those words that you were to discover? They were the words of Dr. Alexander Fleming of St. Mary's Hospital in London, ten years before Dunkirk. I stood at his side too, as I have stood by yours. I had great hopes. Today I found my culture of Bacillus staphylococcus, contaminated by a small spot of green mold. I was about to destroy the culture and begin again when I was struck by an odd thought. The staphylococcus is the most fatal of the septicemia or blood poisoning bacilli. One of the deadliest germs known to science. Yet in this culture, a green mold lived and grew. It's a strange phenomenon. Music Bliss has taken place in the culture. A halo of transparent fluid surrounds the mold. And that means dead germs. There is something generated by the mold that kills the staphylococcus. Music I have made a filtrate from the mold, and it definitely kills staph, strep, and pneumococci. It is one of the most powerful germ killers in existence. And the beauty of it is that the mold is simply penicillium notatum, like ordinary bread mold. It's in the air, in the earth, everywhere. I am writing a paper on my findings. I shall call the filtrate penicillium. Music And so we stand at Dunkirk, Dr. Floyd, and by the bedside of ten thousand stricken men, a decade after the miracle had come to pass, the decade that saw the rise of a man named Adolf Hitler, measured off in time by names that men will long remember, Madrid, Munich, and again Dunkirk. Time to resurrect a miracle. Do you remember, Doctor, time to start the work that was to bring forth one of the greatest miracles in all medical history? Gentlemen, we're after the killer bugs. Every bacteriologist in England is now at war against the wound infectors. New experiments take too long, so we'll re-examine old experiments. What are we after, Dr. Floyd? Something more powerful and less toxic than the sulfonylamide, Dr. Chain. Something that will work in the presence of pus. That's a pretty tall order, Dr. Flory. A pretty tall war, Dr. Abram. I'm not complaining, but where in heaven's name do we begin? With these old publications here on the table. The research of a generation, much of it worthless, maybe all of it, but we'll take them one at a time. Now, here's something. The antibacterial action of cultures of epinecyllium. Whose is it, Dr. Flory? It's the work of Dr. Alexander Fleming. The work of Dr. Alexander Fleming How are our guinea pigs this morning, Dr. Chain? I'm just going to check on them. If they're not all dead by now, it really will be a miracle. Well, Fleming's discovery worked in the test tube. It might work with animals. How did you divide them up? Evenly. They're all thoroughly infected with streptocillae. The 25 of them have been given penicillin. The other 25 haven't. Well, here we are. I'm afraid you're right about that miracle, Dr. The ones in this cage are stone dead. They're the ones that didn't have the penicillin, though. Doctor, look here. The others. They're all alive. The penicillin works. Not only alive. Why, they're as healthy as though they'd never seen a strep bug. Dr. Flory, I know I ought to lose my head. I've seen so many experiments turn sour, but I can't help it. I'm excited. These 25 had enough bugs in them to kill a Nazi army. But they aren't dead. The stuff is working, and it isn't toxic. We're on to something. I think you're right, but I'm trying not to be excited. Our next step is, let's see. Penicillin is non-toxic to guinea pigs, right? I draw. We'll keep on with another batch if we continue to get good results. Well? We'll try penicillin downstairs. In the clinic? Yes, on the cases for which they hold out no hope. Now we're getting somewhere. Yes. If penicillin works for human beings, then we have seen a miracle. You are listening to Thomas Mitchell as the narrator and George Koloros as Dr. Flory in the story of penicillin on the cavalcade of America, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. One of DuPont's better things, which will help you to raise a better victory garden, is semisand seed treatment for vegetables and flowers. Treating seeds with semisand helps to destroy many of the fungus and bacterial organisms on the seeds. By reducing the possibilities of thin stems and weak or stunted plants, DuPont semisand helps produce better yields. The story of penicillin is the story of the long search for a life-saving agent against the death brought by self-resisting staphylococcus infections. It is the story of the unceasing war of science against the ageless enemy disease. It is a story of hope that arose from the battlefronts of this war. As our DuPont cavalcade play continues, a play starring Thomas Mitchell as narrator and George Koloros as Dr. Flory, an American doctor who has heard about Flory's search for a new and more powerful medicine than the sulfur drugs, begins an experiment suggested by a pamphlet published in 1929. My baby isn't going to die, Dr. Graham. My baby isn't going to die, is she, doctor? Please, you mustn't hope too much. We've never tried this treatment for this type of disease. You can't tell me I mustn't hope. She's in a coma, as you see. But she's still alive. I know. But I can't deceive you. The odds are, well, infection has spread from her spine to other of her bones. It's in her bloodstream now. Isn't much we can... Oh, I know. I know. I've stood over her crib watching to see if she's still breathing. Only last week she was in my arms. She was smiling. She's only two months old, but I tell you, she was smiling at me. Now she... she isn't smiling, is she? Try to understand what I'm going to say. The drug we've used on your baby has barely been tested. We still don't know what it'll do. There's a chance that it might do the wrong thing. You have to know that. I've given you my permission, Dr. Graham. Do anything, anything you want to. Don't be ashamed. If you want to cry, let go. Cry if it'll help you. I can't. I mustn't cry. But Dr. Graham, I'm so frightened. Wait. Look. She's crying, Doctor. Oh, God, dear God, after three days my baby's crying again. She's alive. It's like Lazarus, raised from the dead. Listen to her. I never thought I'd hear her cry again. You know what that cry is? It's a hungry cry. Hungry? Yes. She's hungry, Dr. Graham? Yes. If you don't mind, Dr. Graham, I think I'm going to cry. Penicillin. You had your miracle now, didn't you, Dr. Flore? The miracle to turn those fateful hearts to your favor, not mine. A crystal, a powder, a liquid distilled from the brew of a common fungus, secretion of mold heavy with a connotation of life, penicillin, amber magic. As we stand by the bedsides now, men ravaged by dread disease, men ashen with pallor, men nearly cold to the touch, rise as if from a shroud and shake your hand, not mine, and look at the sky again and laugh. And yet for you there is no laughter. To have something in your hand, to have the answer, and then not to have it. To have success and not to have it. A greater success than all our wildest dreams. And still the struggle goes on. They still can't produce it. It's unstable. Britain's entire yield is so small it's microscopic. Last week, a man who should have been dead lived because we gave him penicillin. He was nearly normal. And then our entire supply ran out. And he died. He shouldn't have died. But he died. Yes. I'm sorry. It's as bad as Dunkirk. Wight's worse. There was hope there for millions of British and allied soldiers. But there is still hope, Dr. Florey. Hope in America, where you can speed the miracle of penicillin. Music Yes. In America you had your miracle now, Dr. Florey. The miracle of production. And for the first time in all those weary months, you could look at me and smile. Smile as we watched the haggard, hopeful men in a thousand laboratories across America, fighting by your side to produce that yellow magic. The magic which has the power to lighten and delay my endless, inexorable toil. And you could smile at the words of a man who spoke of an ancient curse. We have established that penicillin will cure gonorrhea in less than 15 hours and syphilis in eight days. This may mean the eventual extinction of the social diseases from the face of the globe. But at this time our first concern is for the men at war, casualties of battle. Music Yes. Our places with them, Doctor, in this year of 1944. Our places at the bedside of the Australian boy wounded in the South Pacific, the boy from Arkansas hit by shrapnel at Casino. Our places where we stand watch now beside a boy who fell on the Anseo beachhead, a soldier swollen with fever, his thigh bone angry with infection. For three days now a Namba fluid has been dripping into his veins. And now he sleeps, quietly, untroubled. He sleeps like this for a day and a night. Now he stirs. And his eyes open with a returning relief. They didn't amputate, did they, nurse? They didn't take my leg. No, Copeland, they didn't. Just reach down and feel it. Still there. I was scared they would. How do you feel? Fine, I think. You know something. What? I'm hungry. Well, that's wonderful. I want a big juicy steak, so thick. You've practically come out of a coma. French fries, a pot full. Two days ago your temperature was 106 and a half. And some string beans, cooked a little salt pork. Yesterday your pulse was 128. And a salad, nice and green. Corporal, you've had septicemia. Maybe some ice cream for dessert. Big glass of milk. Corporal, you're still delirious. Now if you're good, you can have some tea and toast. I want a steak. Tea and toast. You think I got shot up for tea and toast? Doctor's orders. No steak. You're lucky to be alive. I'll be a good boy and do what the doctor says. Well, he didn't cut off my leg, so okay for now. I should have croaked, shouldn't I? You can thank the stuff in this bottle for that. Yeah? What is it? Penicillin. Saved your life. My leg. That's important, my leg. It's pretty wonderful. You bet. A lot of guys like me won't be using crutches, huh? A lot of guys like you. That's good to know. Awful good. It's pretty funny, isn't it? A war? This thing. And kids? Who would have died are going to live. I wonder who ever thought of that. To the men and women who have made possible this modern miracle of penicillin, to those who have gone before, to Pasteur, to Fleming, and to those tireless workers who still carry on, my thanks a small reward. But you will be remembered in the years to come, and your reward will be the thanks and gratitude of all mankind. Yes, doctor. In the years to come, men will remember how you eased their hurt and earned their gratitude, and I will remember, for you have eased my sorry labors from henceforth, even unto the last generation, and you have earned my gratitude, the gratitude of death. Thank you, Thomas Mitchell and George Kolores. Mr. Mitchell will return to the microphone in a few moments. Meanwhile, here is Gaine Whitman speaking for DuPont with this week's story of chemistry. The story of penicillin would be incomplete without a word of appreciation to the Rockefeller Foundation, which so graciously and generously gave support to the pioneers of this wonderful new agent of healing. It was Dr. Simon Flexner of the Rockefeller Institute who 15 years ago made the prediction that the next great advance in medicine would be in the field of chemotherapy. Penicillin as the second great discovery in this field, coming so closely on the heels of sulfur drugs, proves how accurate he was. In 1936 and again in 1939, the Dr. Flory, of whose pioneer work you heard on this evening's cavalcade program, applied to the Rockefeller Foundation for a grant of funds in order that he might continue with his research on penicillin. We might not have this new drug if it were not for the keen perception of the men of the Rockefeller Fund who believe the proper place to extend their financial help is on the frontiers of science rather than in the subtle places behind the frontiers. Medical science acknowledges frontiers, but not geographic boundaries. The same thing is true of all science, including chemistry. American industry must give credit to the chemical scientists of other countries for Buna S. rubber, processes for making ammonia, tungsten carbide, explosive ribbons, rayon, cellophane, and a number of other discoveries, which though they were further developed here, originally came to America from abroad. Because men of science realize that people of all nations benefit when scientific information is freely exchanged, we have these discoveries, which are of so much value to us in wartime and which will continue to be of great usefulness in peacetime. Among these are many of DuPont's better things for better living through chemistry. And now here is Thomas Mitchell. Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It was a pleasure to appear on tonight's Cavalcade with George Caloris and the others in Cavalcade's fine cast, especially interesting because of the great attention we're paying to the development of penicillin these days. Incidentally, I hear that Cavalcade has a very interesting play lined up for next week with one of your favorite actors, one of my favorite actors too, Frederick March. Frederick is going to do a radio adaptation of some of the highlights from his newest picture, The Adventures of Mark Twain. He was all right too. It's a wonderful movie to make a fine radio entertainment. It's the kind of tonic I guess we need these days. So I'll be listening next week with the rest of you. Bye. Cavalcade is pleased to remind this audience that Thomas Mitchell may soon be seen in the 20th Century Fox production, Wilson. Tonight's Cavalcade music was composed and conducted by Robert Armbruster. This is James Bannon sending best wishes from Cavalcade sponsor, the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, and inviting you to join us again next Monday evening when Frederick March will be starred in The Adventures of Mark Twain, a grand story about America's beloved rider and humor. The Cavalcade of America sponsored by DuPont came to you from Hollywood. This is the last of the old broadcasts in Cavalcade.
