 The Cavalcade of America, starring Lee Bowman and Unimerkel. Tonight, the DuPont Company brings you the Starring Blood, starring Lee Bowman and Unimerkel on The Cavalcade of America. First here is Gail Whitman. Good evening. In your plans for keeping a lovely, gracious home, don't overlook the appearance of your floors. Avoid unsightly scarred floors by using DuPont slip retardant wax. The wax that is easy to apply that dries to a smooth, rich luster. This fine wax has the added safety factor of being slip retardant. It reduces the hazards of slipping and skidding. DuPont slip retardant wax is water resistant, too. Try it on your floors and see how lovely they can look. You can use it on wood, linoleum, or composition floors. Use it on woodwork and furniture, too. Slip retardant wax is another of the many DuPont better things for better living, through chemistry. The Starring Blood, starring Lee Bowman as Dave Evans and Unimerkel as Opal on The Cavalcade of America. I don't care where he is. Get him here. Get Dave Evans in this office in three minutes or I'll fire the whole staff. You heard me. City death. Oh, Colin's good. You'll do. Now look, get out to La Guardia Airport right away. There's a plane doing from London. Well, well, well, Dave Evans, I've been planning to get hold of you for an hour. What are you, a reporter? I got your message at the hospital. It came as soon as I could get away. Hospital? What's the matter? Sick? Get sick on your own time. I had to send Colin's out to La Guardia to get a cover of a story that should have been your assignment. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Chief, I've got a story right here in my pocket. Big, page one. Yeah? Well, okay, okay, let's have it. I just came from the hospital. I witnessed a miracle. I got the whole thing too exclusive. Save the build up. Give me the story. Okay, here it is. A scoop. By applying the RH blood factor, they solved the case of erythroblastosis. What? Where's that? Erythroblastosis. Are you gagging? I'm giving you a page one scoop. For what? The encyclopedia? I'm telling you, I've got a story. It's one of the greatest medical miracles that ever happened. What's the matter with you? Best man on the staff, and suddenly you go crazy over some crackpot medical item. Crackpot? Yeah. It's the most fantastic lifesaving miracle that ever happened. But it isn't news, Dave. This is a newspaper. Chief, it's the biggest news since Noah struck land. Dave, will you get out of here before I throw you out? You've got to listen to this, chief. It's a miracle. I saw it happen. Now when you get a baby with erythroblastosis... Erythroblastosis. Go ahead, bust the furniture, tear your hair, but I'm going to write this story. And what's more, I'm going to do a Sunday feature on it. And if you don't want to ever listen to it, I'll write it for somebody else. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Where are you going? Out the door. I quit. Oh, cut it out now. Don't be so touchy. Sit down. Listen to it, but I don't want to understand it. Dave, this is a newspaper, not the doctor's quarterly. There's no way to get that scientific stuff clear to our readers. How about giving me a chance? You kidding? Well, the readers would get to the second syllable of that word, dairy d- Erythroblastosis. Yeah, then they'd turn to the comic page. Listen, see that girl out there at the third desk? Which one? The one with the toothpick. What about it? She's the dumbest blonde in this office. Give me 10 minutes with her, and if I can't get this story through her head in that time, I'll spend the rest of my newspaper days on the society page. Is that a deal? You're going to explain the thing to Opal? Sure, sure I will. You got yourself a deal. Wait a minute. Opal! Opal! Hey, wake up! Did you call me, Chief? Yeah. Okay, Dave. She's all yours. Thanks, Chief. Now, just a minute. What is this? David will tell you. Well... It's all right, Opal. Now, just sit down. Hasn't come? No thanks. I'm chewing some. Look, Opal, Dave wants to tell you a little story. It's about the R.H. blood factor, anerithroblastosis. Thanks. What? You see? See? She's hysterical already. Just a minute, Chief. Opal. That's a beautiful ring you've got. Engaged? Mm-hmm. To my man. Oh, fine. That's good, Opal. But did you know that before you get married, you ought to find out what kind of blood your man has? Blood? It's rare, I guess. Yeah, yeah. But I don't mean that, Opal. I mean, before you marry, you ought to find out his R.H. factor and your R.H. factor. Are you kidding? No, Opal. I'm very serious. You see, if a woman's blood is what they call R.H. negative and a man's R.H. positive, there's danger their children may not live. Oh, you mean that could happen to me? Sure. If you're R.H. negative and he's R.H. positive. Well, I know he's awful positive about certain things. No, no, Opal. I don't mean that. Then what are you talking about? We're not sick if that's what you mean. Oh, no, no, no. This thing happens to perfectly healthy people. Opal, are you listening? Oh, sure. We're healthy, but we're not. Dave, two minutes are up and you're not on first base yet. Now, Opal, just remember this. There's blood that's R.H. negative and R.H. positive. You got that? Sure. Negative and positive, just the opposite of each other. Sheer genius. Quiet, Chief. Listen, Opal, before we start on that big word, erythroblastosis, we've got to work backwards. First, types of blood, and second, the R.H. factor in blood. Now, take another stick of gum and relax. You see, Opal, inside us there's a wonderful organ called the heart. It beats steadily, quietly. And because it beats, the blood flows through our bodies. The heart throbs. The blood flows. It seems so simple, so natural. But blood isn't simple. Somewhere in the blood line, murderous elements. Back in 1900, they gave transfusions. They thought blood was just blood. Everybody's the same. If a man needed blood, they gave him a transfusion. But it didn't always work. Why, the same blood that saved one man on Sunday would kill another on Monday. What was this killer in the blood? Doctors were baffled. Now, there was one particular doctor. His name was Carl Landsteiner. He and other doctors worked night and day in the laboratory trying to track down this killer in the blood. Trying to learn why a transfusion saved one life and snuffed out the next. Robert, that makes ten samples of blood from ten different people, including you and me. Yes, sir. Ten centimeters each. So, we have ten different bloods. We'll start with a simple experiment. Your blood we will use first. Get me four test tubes. There they are. We're going to divide your blood into five equal parts. Two cubic centimeters in each tube? Correct. We leave two CC in the original test tube. Keep that pure and unmixed. The others will mix with different bloods. The next one is Arthur's blood. We'll pour two cubic centimeters of his blood into yours. Mark this one, Robert Arthur, and put it on the rack. The next one is Lilian's. We'll pour two CC of her blood into yours. Mark it, Robert. 39, 40. Right, Dr. Landsteiner. 40 mixed and ten unmixed. Now, they microscope Robert, please. Yes, sir. No, I will get it. I have something I want to get with you. Dr. Landsteiner. Doctor, look. What is it, Robert? What's the matter? Well, look what's happened to this mixed sample. Mine and Joseph's. Blood is clumped. All clumped up. That's funny. And the next one, Joseph and Lilian's. That too. Nothing wrong with this one. Joseph's and Arthur's. Clumping of blood. What happened, doctor? Happened? Robert. Robert, of course. Don't you see? Some bloods will mix and some won't. That's what it looks like. That's what it's got to be. Why, if this thing happened in the body, the person would die. Does die. The transfusions that fail. Exactly. We've got the beginning of an answer to the problem of transfusion. Why, it's so simple. Some bloods will mix. Some won't. Oh, simple, Robert. Well, isn't it? No, I don't think so. There is always the big word. Why? Why does it happen? You see, now we must find out what it is that causes this, this fatal clumping of the blood cells. Quickly now, Robert, the microscope. Well, Opal, that was the start. The first step and the big one. Now they knew that there were different kinds of blood and one kind wouldn't mix with another, like oil and water. Get it? Oh, sure. Like the Red Cross says, A, B, C types. Exactly. Only there are four types and every person, regardless of race or color, belongs to one of four different blood groups. A, B, A, B and group O. Oh. Oh, anybody knows blood types? That's easy. Easy? Well, maybe it sounds easy, Opal, but it wasn't. It wasn't easy because it took years and years just to find it out. The heart beat on pumping blood through our bodies day in and day out and Dr. Lahnsteiner and his assistants worked until they found the different types. The discovery was so important. It saved so many lives that in 1930 Dr. Lahnsteiner was awarded the Nobel Prize. So the heart kept beating. The blood kept flowing. Doctors breathed a sigh of relief because it seemed the mystery was solved. The killer in the bloodstream was caught. But deep down in the bloodstream, pumped through by that quiet throb, was another killer. One afternoon at the hospital, one of the doctors who'd been working with Dr. Lahnsteiner was giving a blood transfusion. Suddenly, everything went wrong. He sent for Dr. Lahnsteiner. I'm very sorry to have got you to the hospital this way, sir. Mother, daughter, what's the matter? Well, come along and take a look at a patient of mine. He was admitted to the hospital in need of a transfusion. But he reacted so violently that the transfusion had to be terminated. That sounds as though there were an error in grouping, was there? No, sir, I checked everything myself. Both donor and recipient were group A. Did you cross check? Yes, several times. Hmm. It's very odd. Well, it happens occasionally. At this hospital alone, there have been more than half a dozen cases where the transfusions had to be stopped despite the fact that the groups were right beyond any doubt. Hmm. How about other hospitals? What do they let us show? You've looked into that? Yes, sir. Similar cases. Some deaths have occurred. Our patient's in here, Dr. Lahnsteiner. Well, Mr. Gordon, feeling better? Yes, thanks, Dr. Weiner. Good, good. Mr. Gordon, this is Dr. Lahnsteiner. How do you do, Dr. Weiner? Good afternoon. Mr. Gordon, I'm just going to ask you a few questions. Did you get the backache during the transfusion? Yes, I did. You also had severe chills? I shook like a leaf. Fanged it a couple of times. Yes, I see. Thank you, Mr. Gordon. I will stop in later. Well, Dr. Lahnsteiner, what do you think? Mr. Gordon has a slight jaundice and a marked anemia. A definite sign of incompatibility of blood. Yes, I know, sir. But the blood matched. The donor was Gruppe, Mr. Gordon's Gruppe. Mm-hmm. And what conclusion do you draw from that, Dr. Weiner? Well, Mr. Gordon's case and the others. Well, there's only one conclusion I can draw. That there's something in the blood we don't know about. Something beside the grouping we already know. Yes, I do think that. I think so too. All right, Dr. Weiner. Meet me at my laboratory tomorrow, as usual. There's only one thing to do. Continue our research until we find out what else is in the blood that kills. Now, Opel, you've got it straight. Oh, sure. I ain't so dumb. Yeah? What have you got so far? Well, this Dr. Launsteiner found out there were different blood types. Some of them went together like ham and eggs. Good, I mean. But other ones, well, they just didn't get along. But even if they matched, blew it. Like the Rocha and the Numpire. Not bad, Opel. Not bad. Well, Dr. Launsteiner and Dr. Weiner found out Gruppe A blood sometimes didn't work with the same group and another person. Three out of every hundred cases went wrong. Look, Dave, time's wasting. Watch the gimmick. Gimmick? You won't believe it when I tell you. Why not? Because the gimmick is a monkey. I never get tired watching these little clowns. These Reese's monkeys are delightful. Yes. They are very easily domesticated too. But we have work to do, Dr. Weiner. Want to read our notes so far? Yes, I do. Let me see. Six weeks ago, we injected 5cc of a Reese's monkey's blood into a guinea pig. I've drawn off the serum from the guinea pig. It's already divided up into 12 test tubes. I hope we have enough serum. Well, we've got 12 different samples of human blood. That means we have just about enough. All right, Dr. Weiner. Let's add one cc of different human blood to each tube of the serum. All right, Dr. I'll work from this end. Let me start from where you are. An early action from this first tube. And here, the second, or here, or the third, or here, or the fourth. Look here, Dr. Weiner. This one. The blood is beginning to clump up. Yes, there is a reaction. Yes, yes. You see, Dr. Singer, there must be another substance in the blood. No matter what the blood group is, there must be another factor that can kill. I knew it was there. I knew it. There were transfusions that went wrong. There was something in the blood that caused it. Yes, yes. Well, we'll have to give this factor a name. But what? There's a name, Dr. Use the first two letters of Rhesus, R-H. Name it after the Rhesus mutt. Good, good. R-H it is. The R-H factor. It must be the same factor discovered three years ago by my pupil, Dr. Levine. It must be. Now we've got to find out how it works in the bloodstream. How many people have it? How many don't? And what blood that has the R-H factor does to blood that doesn't have it? I've got to hunch that the secret lies there. You are listening to Lee Bowman as Dave Evans and Yuna Merkel as Oprah in The Staring Blood on The Cavalcade of America sponsored by the DuPont Company. Maker of better things for better living through chemistry. In an effort to persuade his editor to run a feature story on the R-H factor in blood, Dr. Evans' reporter is telling the story to Opal, one of the girls in the office. Dave has reached the point where Drs. Lahnsteiner and Wiener discover the factor. Dave continues. Now Opal, most people have the R-H factor in their blood. They're called R-H positive. Now those who don't have it are called R-H negative. Then what? So, nowadays when they give transfusions they not only match the blood type but also the R-H factor. Those who use R-H negative get the transfusion of R-H positive blood. Does he die? No, not at the first transfusion. But you just said they had a match. Yeah, I know Opal, but there's this. R-H negative blood hates R-H positive, puts up a battle. But to fight a battle it needs an army. To raise that army takes time. More time than the transfusion takes. But between the first and second transfusions the R-H negative blood has raised an army to fight the positive. And the killing starts. Who kills who? The army that the R-H negative blood has built kills all the R-H positive blood. So the negative wins. Then what? Now that's where you're wrong Opal. The R-H negative wins the battle at first. The enemy is dead, sure. But thousands upon thousands of the dead enemy are floating down the arteries. And what happens? What? This, the dead enemy clogs and clumps literally chokes the life out of the victor so it's no victory after all. How do you like that? Have you got a piece of paper? Yeah, sure. You want to write some of this down? Uh-uh. I gotta get rid of my gum. I've been chewing so hard my jaws hurt. Well, here you are, Opal. Thanks. Now, Mr. Evans, tell me about when I get married. Well, first I've got to clear up one more thing. Opal, suppose an R-H negative person gets a transfusion of R-H positive blood. What happens? You just told me there's lots of trouble. Second time. Good. But now remember, I said that most transfusions worked even before the R-H factor was discovered. I remember. You know why? Because if you're R-H positive and get a transfusion of R-H negative, there's no trouble at all. And no matter how many transfusions you get, an 85 out of 100 people are R-H positive. I get it. That makes only 15 out of 100 people R-H negative. So if there's 100 transfusions, maybe 85 of them would be R-H positive. Right. And they could take either negative or positive without talking out. Opal, I love you. You see, Chief, most of the transfusions were successful because more people were R-H positive. But if an R-H negative person had to have a transfusion... You see, Chief, it'd be like having 85 red hats in a room with 15 green ones. If you had to reach in and the doc and grab one, you'd probably get a red one because there are more of them. I'll switch to your brand of chewing gum. She's right, Chief. Before the R-H factor was discovered, it was like reaching in the doc. Doctors would match blood groups of donor and recipient but knew nothing about the R-H factor. And if an R-H negative person was getting the transfusion, chances are the donor was R-H positive and that caused trouble. I get that, Mr. Evans, but now how about me getting married and having babies? That's my last point. What happens to a baby if one parent is R-H negative and the other is R-H positive? Does he die? That's what the doctors had to find out. Does the blood of the unborn baby fight the blood of the mother? Does the blood of the mother kill the baby? Well, one day another doctor came to see Dr. Wiener. Dr. Wiener, may I introduce myself? I'm Dr. Levine from the Ortho-Research Foundation. I've heard about you, doctor, and I've always wanted to meet you. Thank you. I don't want to take up your time, but there's something I must talk to you about. Well, I'm free for an hour. Please sit down. Thanks. Well, we've been spending a lot of time on erythroblastosis. You know what it is, of course. Well, I've never had any direct experience with it. I know it strikes an unborn, a newly born infant. Yes. Well, it's not exactly a disease, Dr. Wiener. There are no germs, no observable cause. A baby might be born in a pure normal and healthy. A few hours after birth, it becomes jaundiced and death inevitably follows. Yes, yes, I've heard that. I mean, there's no set pattern. As far as we know, it could happen to any mother and any family. But you've got an idea, is that it? Yes. I'm almost certain the eryth factor is involved. And it's identical with the one I discovered in 1937. Now I can prove it. Of course we know that the eryth factor is inherited. If both parents are eryth positive, so the child will be no harm to come from that. Yes, but suppose the parents are opposite. Well, then the chances are the child will be positive because the positive is the dominant trait. I see. Dr. Levine, if there is any connection between erythroblastosis and the RH factor, it just might lie right there. That is, if a negative mother is carrying a positive child. I've been working along that line. Now I should like to try your serum, go back and determine the RH factor of the parents whose infants have this disease. Of course, I'll do everything I can, doctor. And whenever you want me any time, just call me. And so, Opal and Chief, the clue that Dr. Wiener gave Dr. Levine led straight to the fact that there was a connection between erythroblastosis and the RH factor. You mean, gee, you mean if I'm negative and my man is positive, we get that big word we don't have any kids? Oh, no, no, no. Your first child will be all right. It takes time for the RH negative mother to build the armies that attack RH positive blood. What about the second child? I guess he dies. No, no, not necessarily. They don't know everything. There's lots to be learned about these factors. They only know that sometimes the unborn baby's blood gets into the mother's bloodstream or vice versa. Then again, the mothers and baby's blood don't get together at all. In that case, the RH negative mother can keep on having healthy RH positive children. So don't be scared, Opal. Have all the children you want. But the chances, what are they? The chances of a child being hit by erythroblastosis are only one in three or 400. Suppose that chance comes up. There's where the biggest miracle of all comes in. Can that child be saved? Well, listen. I'm glad you got here in time, Dr. Wiener. We've only a few minutes. The child isn't born yet. Talk to me. No, this way, please. I'll film you in briefly. This woman is about to have a third child. What's her factor? RH negative. In here, please. We'll rub up first. You said the mother's RH negative and the father's positive. What about the first two children? Second born dead. This third one. Well, death is almost certain. Unless we can do something about it. We can try, Dr. Wiener. I know now that erythroblastosis is brought on by the two different RH factors of the parents. Yes, but if we should draw out all the child's blood and then transfuse it with RH negative blood that's never had any contact with positive blood, we might save the child. It's the only way, I'm sure. Then, Opal, Chief, those two doctors went in to pull that child away from death. What chance do they have? Every chance you can give men. Men who live so that others may live. We're ready. 300 cc of RH negative blood to use if it's necessary. But first we'll take a test of the infant's blood. I've explained it to the obstetrician. He's cooperating with us all the way. It's a girl, Dr. Levine. Seems all right. I didn't get it. She looks normal, Dr. Wiener, but her skin color... Bronze. Usually a sign of blood disease. Better take a blood count right away. That's indicated. She's getting pale. Her breathing's shallow, rapid. No time for a blood count. Nurse the syringe valve. We'll draw off the blood and inject fresh blood right now. And that's what they did, Opal. Grain out the dead blood. Pumped in the new. That makes it helmet. 250 cc of new blood. Her color's coming back. Heart beat. Stronger. Hemoglobin level, 75%. She's out of danger. Yes? You can take her back to the nursery now. She'll be all right. They did that? Yes. They did that, Opal. Like the kid was a crankcase and they would change an oil for the winter. That's right. Wait till I tell my boyfriend and say, Mr. Evans, how do you know so much about it? My wife's R.H. negative. I'm R.H. positive. And Opal, that was our baby the doctors saved. Gee, think of that. Well, is there a story in it, Chief? It took a little longer than 10 minutes, but... Take as long as you want on a day. But write that story. Does it make a Sunday feature? Yep. Go ahead. All right. I want to write about those men. Dr. Carl Lahnsteiner. Dr. Alexander Wiener. Dr. Philip Levine. I want people to know how much we owe to the doctors that work quietly, year after year, feeding back death and rescuing lives by the millions, conquering the unknown, opening another medical frontier. Here, a baffling, terrifying puzzle that confronted the world for years has at last been solved through painstaking effort of scientific research. Again in America, a challenge has been met and another fear vanished. I'm going to sing about these doctors in headlines. They made the blood flow again. They made the heart beat firmly and surely. Jane Wetland speaking for Dupont. About this time of year, something like 5 million American farmers are getting ready for fluffy golden little chicks. And next fall, these chicks, then mature, productive hens, will be laying eggs for you. In the old days, that was about all people knew about hens, that they laid eggs. Today we know a great deal more. Some 25 years ago, for instance, scientists learned that hens laid more eggs, in wintertime especially, if their feed was enriched with vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. Cobb liver oil and other fish oils were therefore added to poultry feed because they were found to be a good source of vitamin D. And for quite a few years, they were the only commercial source of the vitamin. Then, however, Dupont biochemists found that certain organic materials, when activated with ultraviolet light, gave unexpectedly high vitamin D activity for poultry. This was an original discovery by Dupont. After further work by Dupont and other scientists, this finding was developed to provide a commercial source of vitamin D that was economical, always uniform, and could be dispersed uniformly in dry feed. The Dupont trademark for this product, deactivated animal sterol, is Delsterole. During the war, egg production rose to 60 billion eggs a year. That's an all-time high. Since many of the ingredients that ordinarily were used in poultry feeds were not available, there is little doubt that the remarkably effective new source of vitamin D developed by Dupont was a vital factor in the increased production of eggs. Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat. So Delsterole, in helping the farmer to produce more eggs, helping him to produce them with greater economy, is also a benefit to your health and to your food budget. Delsterole is one of the Dupont company's better things for better living through chemistry. A small boy gazes in wonder at the most beautiful garden in all California, and soon becomes the fast friend of the owner of the garden, Luther Verbank. Through this boy's eyes, we see the development of many great miracles in plant growth and witness a test of courage brought about by misunderstanding and superstition. This story of one of the greatest geniuses in the horticultural world will be heard next week when Cavalcade brings you The Man with Green Fingers, starring one of America's great actors, Lionel Barrymore, in the role of Luther Verbank. Make it a part to listen regularly to Cavalcade. In the coming weeks then, you will hear Lionel Barrymore, Henry Fonda, Thomas Mitchell, and other famous Hollywood stars brought to you on the Cavalcade of America. The music for the Dupont Cavalcade is composed and conducted by Robert Armbrister. Tonight's Cavalcade was written by Sigmund Miller and Halstead Wells. Lee Bowman appears through the courtesy of Columbia Pictures, producers of Johnny O'Clock. Unimercle is soon to be seen in the Eagle Lion picture. It's a joke, son. In the cast with Lee Bowman and Unimercle, where Ken Christie is the editor, Herb Butterfield is Dr. Lahnsteiner, Bob Bailey is Dr. Wiener, Stanley Waxman is Dr. Levine, and Jerry Hausner and Tobin and Hugh Thomas. This is John Easton inviting you to listen next week to Lionel Barrymore in The Man with Green Fingers on the Cavalcade of America brought to you by the Dupont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. The National Broadcasting Company.