 Presenting Brian Dunleve in the Conquest of Pain on the DuPont Cavalcade of America. Perhaps this holiday season you'll be opening your home to have some service for your girl who is far from home. In that case you may want to redecorate a room in a jiffy. You can do it with DuPont speed easy wall finish. You thin speed easy with water, apply it with a large brush or roller and in less than an hour the room is ready for use. Speed easy is quick and easy. It's beautiful and long-lasting too. Remember it's speed easy made by the DuPont company. Maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Good evening. This is Wally Houston. Our cavalcade play tonight tells the story of the greatest battle humanity has ever fought to fight against pain. Our star Brian Dunleve is well known for his many portrayals of fighting men but tonight he is going to tell us about fighting men of a different kind. Now the DuPont company presents Brian Dunleve as the narrator in Morton Wishengrad's radio play The Conquest of Pain. Pain has followed man as closely as his shadow. Through the ages man has cried out in agony and prayed for release from physical torment. But until the weapon against pain was found each man had to bear his suffering as best he could. Not too fast soldier. Not too fast. Now that's better. That's the way. Easy. Pulse normal doctor. Respiration normal. Very good. Pupils dilated sir. He's under. Fine. All right nurse. Watch his pulse. Somewhere in France far behind the lines a wounded soldier lies upon an operating table. He feels no pain for the eat the vapor is sweet in the air and thick in his lungs. For him now the surgeon's knife holds no terror. When he wakes you will have no recollection of this and perhaps the nurse will show him the bullet on a wad of white cotton and he will marvel. This is the conquest of pain. The anesthesia carries him beyond sleep to the threshold of death and it will bring him back without memory of where he has been C2H5O C2H5 an ethyl oxide made by the action of sulfuric acid on alcohol a colorless mobile volatile pleasant smelling liquid compound C2H5 O C2H5 ether a prescription against agony. Do you take this chemist formula for granted now? Do you wait without apprehension in the anti-room of a surgeon and trustingly take his hand? Once that surgeon's hand was covered with blood it was not so long ago. Only a few hundred years ago the name of surgeon was an abomination on the tongue. Don't let him get away. Quick put him on the table. No please doctor no please. Fretch-Catelli hold his right leg. Yes I can. Paolo his left leg. Ramualdo you hold his arm. In the name of God doctor please. Please don't operate. Have you got him down? Yes. All right now listen to me Venturo. There's gang green in that leg if you want to live it's cut to come off. I don't care I'd rather die. Listen to me. I'm the fastest surgeon in the kingdom of Naples. No. I can take that leg off in 37 seconds and now with Paolo my knife. Hold him steady. No. Don't let him move. Ready. Hold now. Hold. Yes he was the great medieval surgeon. He was fast but the sweat matted his hair and the smell of fright hung like ammonia over the operating table and when it was done the surgeon wiped his face. Oh Lord I'm not a doctor I'm a butcher. Of course painless surgery was an illusion. Did not the great surgeons of the world proclaim it an impractical dream? Yet nevertheless impractical men groped for this anodyne against pain. In the 13th century an alchemist spoke into the void. Notice the smell. Sweet. Sweet almost to clawing. Sweet vitriol. His name was Raymond Lully alchemist and for two centuries men forgot the white Swedish fluid which he called sweet vitriol and then one day theophrastus bombastus paracelsus von Hornheim physician extraordinary mixed some acid of sulfur with alcohol heated it and condensed the steam into a white fluid and being of a curious turn of mind Paracelsus fed the white fluid to some chickens. Remarkable. Remarkable. Fast asleep. Hmm. Evidently it has an agreeable taste for they took it gladly. Now they're asleep. Remarkable. Paracelsus did not know home remarkable. It was only a short step to discovery but a world in agony had to wait two and a half centuries until 1772 when the English nonconformist minister Joseph Priestley discovered another vapor nitrous oxide. I wonder suppose I try this gas on some animals. Yes I wonder what would happen. Joseph Priestley never found out for the mob wrecked his house and destroyed his laboratory. The gentleman of Europe forgot his experiment then Humphrey Davy who was young and important and obviously not the gentleman sniffed some vapor in a test tube. So this is nitrous oxide. Well it's amusing. It's very amusing. I like it in fact. Mr. Priestley they call this nitrous oxide but I call it laughing gas. And this young Englishman announced to the world that nitrous oxide possessed anesthetic properties but the world refused to listen. It also refused to listen to Michael Faraday who suggested that ether vapors could put people to sleep and while the century lay racked in pain nitrous oxide and ether became mere chemical curiosities. But in the little town of Jefferson Georgia in the year 1841 Dr. Carter Williamson Long remembered the ether parties of his student days and dusted off a flask of the stuff once called sweet vitriol. He's drunk. Crawl for long. Don't you dare come near me even if you are. I'm gonna kiss her. Get out of my way Jim Vanneville. I'm gonna kiss her. I'm just trying to help you old man. That was a nasty fall. It didn't seem so bad to say my knee. Well I told you you really banged at me didn't you feel it. I didn't feel the thing but it hurts like blazes now. I wonder Jim. Well you know I've wanted to remove that growth on your neck for a long time the answer is still no suppose I gave you ether it has never been done before that growth is mighty unsightly. Well I knew you'd see it my way take off your coat Jim Vanneville I would operate with ether and so for a few brief hours Dr. Crawford Williamson Long touched the hem of immortality the operation was successful and painless but the townspeople were offended and the clergy was scandalized and being both practical and amiable young Dr. Long restored the flask of ether to his medicine cabinet and the cries of pain emanating from his operating table reassured the people of Jefferson that the devil had once again been exercised exit Dr. Crawford Williamson Long enter the principal characters the stage is New England Horace Wells dentist William Thomas Green Morton dentist and medical student scene one Hartford Connecticut the month December the year 1844 Horace Wells is reading a newspaper any plans for the night my dear not that I can think of why now there's a to be a laughing gas exhibition at Union Hall paper says 12 men and volunteer to inhale the gas might be amusing probably a brawl no no says here the gas will be administered only to gentlemen of the first respectability the object is to make the entertainment in every respect a gem teal affair my dear we're going it was an amazing exhibition Cooley did you feel the effects of the gas immediately in about a minute I'd say Horace it's cold and it's late how long are you going to I'm sorry you fell Cooley Horace I'm speaking I can't get over it when you fell I thought you broke your leg I never felt it Horace you know I'm going to get some of that gas you think that lecture would give me some cold well I don't see why not oh I hate you Horace Wells did you say something really well I've never been so goodbye Horace Wells you can stand there and freeze but I'm going home never brought that I'm sorry Cooley one second my dear I'm coming Horace Wells crawled into bed but he couldn't sleep like Crawford long of whom he had never heard Horace Wells had made a striking observation while his wife gently snored he tossed on his pillow and impatiently waited for the dawn December 11th 1844 was a gray bleak day but Horace Wells was unmindful of the cold on December 11th 100 years ago today he asked his friend Johnny Riggs who was also a dentist to come to his office Johnny you like to pull teeth don't you when people let me sure well I've got some laughing gas in this rubber bag now after I inhale it you pull my second molar don't be a fool well it's my tooth will you pull it or shall I go somewhere else sit right down mr. Wells it will be a very great pleasure more water Johnny yeah you're not fooling me Wells are you you swear you felt no pain Johnny I'm going to take a trip to Boston see William Morton my former partner Johnny this is a new era in truth pulling sure you take some more water oh thanks in Boston Dr. William Thomas Green Morton a disappointed dentist was studying medicine under the talented but quick tempered Dr. Charles Jackson William Morton listened attentively to Horace Wells and was caught by his excitement together the two dentists went to see Dr. Jackson as Morton and I see it Dr. Jackson it's the only way to find out but it's dangerous suppose a patient died you'd be guilty of murder there's a Harvard student who's agreed to submit to an extraction before the medical faculty all we want is your advice don't you know my advice Morton if you haven't any sense you you won't go through with it we've got to know Dr. Jackson we appreciate your advice but we're going through with it Morton and I are pulling that tooth at Harvard tomorrow you're listening to the conquest of pain on the cavalcade of America sponsored by E. I. DuPont in Amore's and company of Wilmington Delaware maker of better things for better living through chemistry this evening's cavalcade is the story of the development of anesthesia and the conquest of pain and torments which have plagued mankind through the centuries as our play continues Horace Wells and his friend William Morton to New England dentists in the year 1844 are about to demonstrate use of nitrous oxide as an anesthetic for tooth extraction before the faculty of the Harvard Medical School you're nervous Wells tolerably don't worry about you want me to administer the gas no no no I'll do it gentlemen Dr. Horace Wells is ready to begin after the patient has received a quantity of the gas the extraction will be performed without pain proceed Dr. Wells just take a chance me the four sets Martin's no point in waiting those was hooded in the lecture hall the quantity of nitrous oxide administered had been insufficient he knew it now and William Morton knew it Horace Wells returned to the practice of dentistry but William Morton was stubborn adversity had discouraged Crawford long and partially deferred Horace Wells but adversity only made William Morton more determined he was an unusual man on his honeymoon he had brought along a skeleton to study human bone structure now he began experimenting with ether his wife was outraged when he used caterpillars and worms as his subjects and one day she entered his laboratory yes I thought she really you were dead now merely etherized Elizabeth don't you ever do that again William Morton you sure you're all right Elizabeth you want some water pinch my what do it a good pinch there was it a good pinch it most certainly was barely felt it I think he could have pulled every tooth in my mouth a little while ago and I wouldn't have known Elizabeth this is what I've been looking for I'm going to try it out all I need is a patient and it's all Elizabeth a patient I think that's my patient Elizabeth I'll see who it is who is it Elizabeth it's Mr. Toothache terrible you've got to get it out of the pain will drive me crazy right away even say what's that in her hand forceps even I think my tooth has stopped hurting a good bye now wait a minute even are you afraid of the operation yes sorry how would you like something to take away the pain what are you going to do hypnotize me something better you want to try well all right what do I do just sit in this chair that's it now I'm going to pour some of this fluid on my handkerchief yeah now you hold it to your nose and inhale breathe it in even deep that's the way that's the way I'll be all over in 30 seconds Elizabeth the forceps on October 1st 1846 the Boston Daily Journal informed its subscribers last evening an ulcerated tooth was extracted from the mouth of an individual without giving him the slightest pain overnight something happened to William Morton he was the man with a mission he burned with religious zeal his discovery belonged to medicine to all humanity he offered it to the physicians of Boston they refused Morton was incredulous incredulous and still stubborn finally he lay and wait for the eminent and brilliant professor John C. Warren of the Massachusetts General Hospital and what makes you think I'll try this method everyone else is refused I think you're different professor Warren don't flatter me Dr. Morton I'm like all the rest oh you're not professor Warren I know you've just come from an amputation I'll stake my life on the guess that you give everything you own to get those shrieks out of your head that's not a bad guess but why should I trust you because you can't trust yourself to torture a patient unnecessarily all right Morton perhaps I'll live to regret it but I'm willing to give you a method a trial remember this day October 16th 1846 they wheeled the patient into the crowded amphitheater of the Massachusetts General Hospital amid deep silence a professor Warren's side stood the leading surgeons of Boston ranged in the tears before and set scores of expectant young students professor Warren glanced once more at the clock the hour had come before beginning this operation I wish to say a few words I've been 40 years a surgeon in Boston on every instance when the knife was applied to live tissue there was pain now a dentist of this city tells me that he has a preparation to do away with that pain is a dr. Morton here dr. William Morton he got cold feet I'm sorry gentlemen I presume dr. Morton is otherwise engaged very well we'll perform the operation without him without using his anesthetic dr. Bigelow will you assist me thank you I'm sorry I'd given you up more than we're going ahead without you terribly sorry doctor gentlemen I was delayed because I've worked all night until this moment to perfect my inhalator for ether if you and professor Warren are ready I'll now proceed to administer the anesthetic I'm ready Morton here's the patient very well are you afraid no sir take this tube in your mouth and breathe in breathe deeply go ahead not too fast that's better that's better just like that if you're ready dr. Morton prick his arm with a needle professor Warren did that hurt you can you hear me did the needle hurt I think you can begin to operate professor the patient is ready dr. John C. Warren of the Massachusetts General Hospital begins the operation which will excise a vascular tumor from the neck of the patient while William T. Morton stands by the learned surgeons crane their necks to see in the students stand on the benches waiting for the cry of pain which does not come gentlemen this is no humbug the art of surgery has been robbed of its terrace October 16th 1846 the beginning of an age without pain and so the soldier sleeps under anesthesia and he feels no pain ours has been a triumph the triumph of two dentists the triumph of William Thomas Green Morton and Horace Wells and Crawford Long and Michael Faraday and Humphrey Davey and Joseph Priestley and a man called Paracelsus and Raymond Lully the alchemist deep in the 13th century for science is a progression and while some stumble and others falter each who labors lights a torch and when his arm is weary he passes the torch on these are lamp lighters the flame throwers and theirs is the triumph of life and the conquest of pain thanks to you Brian Dunleavy and to all other members of tonight's DuPont cavalcade I'm sure I don't have to tell you especially the ladies in our audience about nylon for stockings and other articles of clothing but perhaps you didn't know that chemically speaking there is a whole family of nylons for example nylon is also a plastic they tell me that is a plastic it can be made into tubes or recovering for wire it can be molded into finished parts for use in many industries that's why doesn't it gain yes Walter it is for example here's one way nylon can be used as a plastic on battleships the telephones that control gunfire have no batteries or electrical generators because they might be put out of commission or catch fire during a battle their current is generated instead by the voices of the men speaking into them these sound powered battle telephones as they are called have to be extremely sensitive which means their coils must be wound with a large amount of wire in a very small space so the coil forms are molded of nylon plastic nylon coil forms with flanges only 12 1000th of an inch thick successfully meet Navy specifications and nylon forms can stand temperatures all the way from 90 degrees below freezing to more than 250 above nylon is an outstanding plastic for certain kinds of valve seats and it's being used for anemometer cups those whirly gigs you see on top of weather stations and airport control towers every time the cups whirl around they flex nylon stands up under this repeated flexing and nylon anemometer cups withstand the high temperature and dampness of the tropics these uses of nylon as a plastic and other uses are one more reason why there will be no more nylon stockings until the war production board gives DuPont the green light these various nylons also hold great promise for the future or when the war is over you'll have nylon not only as yarn for stockings and slips and things like that but is one of the newest and best plastics nylon plastic another example of the way industrial research seeks new forms and new uses for a product to make it more valuable to the nation and its people and another example of the DuPont companies better things for better living through chemistry when we hear the word pioneers we usually think of men and women pitting their strength against the wilderness to open up a new land but there have been other pioneers men and women who pitted their strength against the wilderness of prejudice and ignorance to open up the horizons of our minds such a woman was Elizabeth Blackwell the first woman doctor founder of the first hospital and medical school for women lovely Loretta Young will play the leading role in the doctor in Quinlan on next Monday's DuPont capital Cade of America incidentally I am sure next week's story will inspire many nurses to answer our army's urgent call or registered nurses I hope those of you who are contemplating joining won't wait till next week because 10,000 are needed right now just remember any nurse who enters the army nurse car will practice her profession where it will do the most good I sincerely hope those of you who are registered nurses will write to the surgeon general US Army Washington DC or call at your nearest Red Cross chapter thank you and good evening tonight's star Brian Don Leve may be seen in Paramount's motion picture the Virginians soon to be released the music on tonight's cavalcade was composed and conducted by Robert Armbruster this is Gain Whitman inviting you to tune in next week to the doctor in crinoline starring Loretta Young brought to you by the EI DuPont Deena Moore's company of Wilmington, Delaware national broadcasting company