 Proudly, we hail. New York City, where the American stage begins, here is another program with a cast of outstanding players. Public service time has been made available by this station for your Army and your Air Force to bring you this story. As proudly we hail the doctors, the medical services, our story is entitled Magic Dust, a tale of the wonders of medical science as applied to preventive medicine. Our first act curtain will rise in a moment, but first... Registered nurses, here is a chance to be of service to your country during one of the most critical periods in America's history. As you know, our Army has expanded rapidly due to the tech and urgently needs more nurses to help safeguard the health of our soldiers. You'll be a commissioned officer with good pay and liberal allowances, and you'll have priceless opportunities for furthering your professional career. You'll have the benefit of working with some of the finest medical equipment in the world and the chance of learning the newest techniques in the medical profession. Get all the facts today. Write or wire the Surgeon General, United States Army, Washington 25 D.C. Do it now. And now your Army and your Air Force present the proudly we hail production, Magic Dust. The dictionary definition of the word Army is a large, organized body of men armed for war and designed for land service. Side by side with this large, organized body of men, in fact, a very important part of this group is the medical service. Doctors, nurses, men charged with the health and well-being of the men of our armed forces, whether it be peace or war. One of the important branches of this medical service is the preventive medicine section. This branch of medicine has made great strides in our battle against disease. The United States Army Medical Service devised means to purify the water supply of soldiers in the field. The medical service fought and won the fight against yellow fever in Cuba and Panama. The medical service protected the American soldier against malaria, typhoid, smallpox, and typhus. And that's just the beginning of the story. For out of the problems of the past, out of the shadow of war, have come the means to protect the civilian population of this nation against most of the disease that flesh is airing. This has been going on for a long, long time. Water is a necessity of war. Thirst can make a soldier very vulnerable. Contaminated water can make that soldier very sick. And during previous wars, the medical service cut down the incidents of typhoid and dysentery by insisting on water purification for the army. In World War I, our army went into Europe for the first time in history. The medical service successfully protected our men from smallpox, typhus, and the other ills that lurk within the shadows of war-wrecked countries. And then came global war. The maps were spread out on the huge tables in the mapping rooms. Strange names appeared on the maps were spoken in the secret moons. Names that we were to learn much, much later. Names that are forever to be remembered. Guadalcanal and Casarino. Fincheven, Hlandi and Solano. Bugampion and Casino. Karachi and Moritai. These places would come to know American men. American men would come to know these places and the dangers lurking there. Within the medical service, the maps were laid out too, and earnest men poured over them. But the talk was not of landing craft and tanks. There is no doubt in my mind or in any of yours, gentlemen, I'm sure that we have the toughest problem on our hands the Army ever finished. If the enemy is spreading as fast as they are, our supplies of fine iron will be cut off almost entirely. I have a hunch we'll lick that pretty soon. That adabren synthetic is highly effective already. Well, it will help. However, gentlemen, there's one disease we can be certain will appear. And I have a hunch it will be a potent enemy. The enemy, gentlemen, is typhus. Typhus. Louse-born, filth-carried, bred in poverty and wretchedness. Infecting soldier and civilian alike. Responsible for thousands of deaths in World War I. More deadly than bullets. And as silent in its coming as the shadows of night. This is the enemy. He's very old, son. Very old. But must he now? There's little I can do. Grandfather dies now. There'll be nobody left but me. I'm afraid there's no if about it. You must make every mind of that. But I had the fever, too. Why didn't I die? Because you're young and strong. It stops their hearts. Like that, my boy. Yes, sir. That. Doctor, what do doctors call a fever grandfather died from? It's always followed wars everywhere, my boy. It's called typhus. Typhus, the champion of the Four Horsemen. This was the battle. Beat typhus and millions marked for death would live. Yes, this was the battle. And this battle was joined by the Army Medical Service in 1941. And then, in 1942, the men of the Typhus Commission went to work. They established bases wherever it appeared necessary and the job went ahead. In the meantime, the millions of men under arms within the borders of the United States had to be protected against the menace they would meet overseas. The first step was... Okay, you guys. Line up. Roll up your left sleeve. Not more shots, Sarge. Shots, it is. Just one this time. What for? If it's smallpox, typhoid, yellow fever, and tetanus, I'm so full of holes I look like a sieve. Save the chatter, soldiers. This time you get typhus. Holy cow, what do they think of next? Every man in the Army and Navy receive those typhus shots. Every man was protected by a vaccine made... Well, this is how it's made, if you can conceive it without seeing it. The organisms that cause typhus are called rickettsia, from the scientist Ricketts, who discovered them. Now, the process of developing rickettsia is as follows. Lice are infected with typhus. The infected insects are destroyed and their intestines are then injected into eggs that have been incubated for six or seven days. After a period of development, the crop of rickettsia is harvested, purified, and as we say, phenylized into a vaccine. The dry voice of a scientist makes it all so simple, doesn't it? Inoculate eggs, harvest a crop, make a vaccine. Not a word about the infinite care and patience. About the time and money spent on this one process of preventive medicine. But it pays off. It certainly did pay off. The use of this vaccine was insurance against death from typhus. The use of this vaccine very greatly reduces the incidence of typhus. A gross understatement. When our troops served alongside the troops of other nations that were not protected in this manner and in the midst of civilian populations actually infected with the disease, the only cases of typhus that appeared in American soldiers were so mild that it took laboratory tests to establish that they had the disease at all. But this is only one side of the picture. This is the bright side. The dark side is black indeed. What about the millions destined to die if the disease is not controlled for them? What about the children and the old men and old women? What can be done for them? Even clean, I'd say. Delosam to be blunt about it. I see in those outfits with the dry heaters and the steam that we build on trailers. The stuff is carried by lice. Kill the lice! Sounds so easy. But stop a minute. Granted that you could build places for thousands of people to wait for their clothing. Granted that you could dry and cool off their clothing fast enough to give it back to them before the next batch came in. Granted all this. What happens in the first hour of their back and their old haunts? What happens then? That's it. In just 10 seconds, a hop, a skip, and a jump ping, and you can start the cleaning process all over again. No, it won't do. It just won't do. Why not shoot them full of that vaccine stuff? Give them all the protection the American soldier gets. Not so easy. Not so easy at all. First, there's the production of the vaccine. Slow, pain's taking, careful. Then there's the problem of inoculation. I suppose they would gripe like the soldiers do. Shots, shots, shots. What do you mean? What do we do? Let them die? You know better than that. The word preventive doesn't stand for anything like that. No, the Army Medical Service knew they had to find a way to stop the spread of typhus, to stop all those unnecessary deaths. There was the problem. And the problem was solved. You are listening to the proudly we hail production of magic dust. We'll return to our story in just a moment after this important announcement. Our Army has expanded tremendously to meet the challenge of the forces of aggression which are threatening the peace of the world. And there is an urgent need for professional women to fill the ranks within the Women's Medical Specialist Corps. The occupational and physical therapists and the dieticians who comprise the Corps have never had a greater opportunity to serve where they are needed most. Right now, there are only a few hundred of these highly trained specialists serving throughout the Army and the Air Force. Despite the fact that the need for their services has never been more acute. To the women of this profession, your Army and Air Force offers not only the opportunity to fulfill a patriotic duty but a commission as an officer in the Army or the Air Force of the United States. And with that commission goes the pay, the privileges, the security and the opportunities for continued study that is available to every officer. The opportunity for a lifetime career is great but the need is greater. So if you are a qualified occupational or physical therapist or a dietician here is your chance to serve your country in an hour of great need. Write or wire the Surgeon General United States Army or the Surgeon General United States Air Force Washington 25 D.C. Remember, you are needed now. You are listening to Proudly We Hail. Now we present the second act of Magic Dust. The first blow against Typhus was struck 72 years ago by an obscure student in the University of Strasbourg, a chemistry student, Othman Zeidler, who had a thesis to write. In the course of the experiment described above I succeeded in synthesizing a little unknown combination called dichlorodifino trichloroethane. It is a powerful poison whose effect on life has yet to be determined. And that was all that was known about dichlorodifino trichloroethane, commonly called DDT today. Othman Zeidler wrote his thesis and it was buried as so many things are deep in the library of the University. And then in 1939 there was a plague of potato bugs in Switzerland. Yeah, a little I think. A little isn't enough. If something isn't found quickly there will be no potatoes in Switzerland this year. And that will mean a food shortage. Now what have you got? I have checked and tested a number of formulas, sir. The only thing that seems at all effective is dichlorodifino trichloroethane. It seems to kill insects practically on site. The potato bug is a hardy fellow. Yeah, I tried that, sir. Just let the potato bug touch this stuff and it's dead. Well, not yet, sir. Now get in touch with our department of agriculture. Have them perform experiments. If they want it, we'll make it for them. They wanted it all right. The potato crop was saved in Switzerland that year simply by spraying the plants with the rediscovered chemical. In 1942, Paul Müller called on the American military attaché in Baal, Switzerland. What can we do for you, Mr. Müller? That is not the question, sir. It is what we can do for you. So? We wish to offer the United States government a chemical formula free of charge for the duration of the war. Well, let me thank you in advance, Mr. Müller. And now then, what is this formula? We call it dichlorodifino trichloroethane, sir. We have used it with marked success against agricultural pests and we have great reason to believe it to be tremendously effective against the typhus bearing louse. And so it came to the United States, this old, new chemical with the long, almost unpronounceable name. It came here and the Army's Department of Preventive Medicine was interested at once. Perhaps this was the agent of death for insects we'd been searching for. 100 pounds of the stuff went to the Department of Agriculture. It next appeared in a laboratory in Orlando, Florida. Why are you spraying an empty cage? You won't kill mosquitoes that way, Mac. You see those cages over there? Well, they were sprayed yesterday, just as this one was. Yeah? What's so terrific about that? I'm going to place some of these mosquitoes in those cages. Yeah, that should do it. Let's get to the point. What is it that's so terrific? Oh, you'll see, Dave. Let's take a break for a smoke. Better be good. Hey. They're all dead, Mac. That's the stuff the Swiss sent over. Knock some old dead, all kinds of mosquitoes, flies, fleas, lice, every insect we have in the lab. But what does it do to animals and humans? Well, that's the next step. It's safe to use. We've looked some pretty big problems. Let's find out, Dave. Let's find out. And find out they did. Patiently, quietly, in the deepest secrecy, 29 scientists at the Orlando Laboratory worked faithfully in the tradition of water read, Joseph Goldberger, Ricketts, Nicole, and all the others. They checked and double-checked every possibility. They proved and reproved, tried and retried. And then they reported, from the results of our experiments, we feel we can say that dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane is the most effective insecticide ever discovered by man. We have found that it retains its effectiveness on the treated surfaces for as long as two weeks after treatment, in spite of laundering, cleaning, or even the forces of nature such as rain and heat. It will be of great use to the armed forces under all conditions of battle, weather, or temperature. What was this, anyway, this jawbreaker? Dynamite? How would it be used? What could we really do with it? The name DDT, a typically American abbreviation, took hold and has been used since. DDT, born in Strasburg and buried there in 1874, resurrected in Switzerland in 1939, grown to maturity in Florida in 1942 and 43. DDT, dynamite or insect pest. And all this while, the Typhus Commission was in the field, working, working against the day when the first American soldier would place his boots on the soil of Europe. On Europe? But Africa was first. Hey, you kids, you speak English? Me, Ali speak little English. Yeah? What about your two friends? They not understand. Me, Ali, me speak foreign. You got chocolate candy chewing gum, yes? Yeah, okay. I got chocolate candy chewing gum, yes. Here. Hey, hold everything. There's something else, too. Something else? Yeah. I'm scratching, will you? Yes. Look, kid, what I got, it'll stop all that scratching for you. You know, me, I scratch. Friend scratch. My father, my mother. Yeah, yeah, I know. Look, let me dust a little of this powder over you, will you? Dust? There was much dust. Can you make more? Oh, this is a special dust. It'll stop the scratching. Maybe. No, too much dust here now. Uh, for, um, 10 francs? Maybe. You pay money? Yeah, I pay money to you. Do your friends go? If you let me dust your stuff. Can you pay money first? Uh, uh, uh, uh. I know that guy. I pay money second. First, dust. See? Like this. Smells funny. You pay money now. Yeah, just a shade more dust. Like this. Yeah, okay. Now, here's your 10 francs. Now, let me at you two friends. Can you talk with me, yes, but no more dough? Dough? No more money. Yes, no money. Allie, very happy now. Do you make dust? No more scratching. Allie and friends tell whole village. Oh, that's fine. Nothing like publicity, I always say. You say? Yes, give it to you. Well, what's on your mind? Oh, what do you want? My father, head mayor. He say you make dust on whole village. Whole village lets you make dust. Not again, kid. The whole village likely gonna make dust on it. Allie, you're in. Hey, you guys, here we go. The whole village is coming out to be dusted off. It was something. It was the beginning. 30 francs spent on three Arab boys led to the permission to use DDT on their whole village, on the population of North Africa all along our line of march. Yes, there were other preliminary victories in Africa besides Tunis and Berserk. Now, the lines on the maps moved forward. Sicily, Silano on the march on Naples. Casinos splashed black across our headlines. And Anzio was written down in the blood of young Americans. While our eyes were fastened on the maps and our ears were filled with gunfire, there was menace in the silence out of other places. Dark, spreading insidious menace. A city of a million souls crowded with the flotsam and jutsam of war with homes wrecked, water supplied meager, with thousands living in the bomb shutters because there was no other place to go. Into this city came thousands upon thousands of American boys. Out of that city, word flashed. Epidemic in Naples. Types. Types within the shadows of war, breeding, spreading, claiming the lives of young and old. The charts at the overcrowded, overworked hospitals began to show the figure, began to speak the truth. 10 cases admitted today. 22 cases admitted today. 46 cases today. 63 cases today. The old people died. They always do with typhus. It strains the heart. And the disease spreads on. From victim to victim, from typhus patient to healthy human, on it went. The order came from headquarters to the typhus commission to the teams of medical corpsmen charged with fighting this creeping, silent enemy. Get there and get there now. They got there, rolled into the city, rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Now, take it easy. Don't we got dust all of them? You know the orders, guy. All of them. Looks like a million. That's not, but it's liable to be before we get through. Hey, you, come here. Now, look, you guys, this is how it's done. I take this one, see? And I give it home with the dust. Up each sleeve on his collar, up his pants, round his waist inside his belt. And that's all. Then the next one. And keep moving. We got no time to waste. There was dust in Naples then. Dust with DDT. The teams went out, dusting typhus patients, their families, their homes, their furniture and their clothing. The teams went out and dusted the bomb shutter dwellers, 40,000 of them. The teams went out and in one day, 73,000 people were protected with DDT. Then one month after the job was started, the hospitals reported, In the past 24 hours, the rate of admissions of typhus cases has dropped from 63 to a mere 10. At a point in the epidemic where we expected a sharp rise. The battle that was joined in 1942 with the creation of the Typhus Commission gave us our first great victory in Naples in 1944. DDT was the weapon. The preventive medicine experts of the Army Medical Service provided the fighters. The dividends were enormous. The methods proved in Naples have beaten the disease in every part of the world where American troops are today. And this was the work we did. While our enemy deliberately infected people with typhus in an attempt to wipe out whole populations, this is the difference between us and them. This will always be the difference between a compassionate government by the people and an oppressive dictatorship of slavery. Well, Sergeant, here we are again. Same job, different location. Yeah, Sewell instead of Naples. Oriental instead of Occidentals. There's just as many of them and just as many lice. Even with Lundane instead of DDT. You know, back there in Naples, dusting them civilians, many of them innocent bystanders in the pathway of war wasn't so bad. But to think that you and me have got to dust these commie prisoners, well, they ought to be left alone to itch their hides off. Yeah, and then we'd have to inoculate every man, woman, and child in the country. Oh, thank you. Besides, what if this dear lousing does give the guy a little pleasure? They've had darn little in their life. You know, it's just too bad that this magic dust can't get at the real thing that's lousing up their existence. Yes, Sergeant, it is too bad that your magic dust can't get at the real thing that's lousing up the existence of an awful lot of people in the world today. But we're mighty grateful for the part it's playing in helping to control the dreaded diseases of the world. And we're real proud of the men and women of the medical service who made possible the use of DDT, the magic dust. Registered or graduate nurses, answer your country's call for service in the Army Nurse Corps. The need is great, and the need is urgent. There just aren't enough nurses to handle the nursing requirements of our greatly expanding Army. And you, as a nurse, can appreciate perhaps better than anyone else the fact that an Army's efficiency is largely dependent upon the state of its health. So here's your opportunity to be of immeasurable service to your country at a time when the need is great. The Army Nurse Corps has plenty to offer you, too. The pay is good, and the allowances are liberal. You'll be in a job that challenges the best that's within you, and you'll have endless opportunities to grow in your professional capacity. The Army's vigorous medical research program has developed many new medical techniques, and you'll learn how to apply them. But most of all, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you are serving at a time when you are needed most. So make your decision to serve now. Write or wire the Surgeon General, United States Army, Washington, 25 D.C. This has been another program on proudly we hail, presented and transcribed in cooperation with this station by the United States Army and the United States Air Force Recruiting Service. This is Kenneth Banghart speaking, and inviting you to tune in this same station next week for another interesting story on proudly we hail.