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The World is Yours 1937-12-19 Drugs and Medicine
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The World is Yours 1937-12-19 Drugs and Medicine
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Hello, it is Ryan. And I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino.com I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing? They were also playing Chumba Casino. Coincidence? I think not. Everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumba Casino is home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere, even at 30,000ft. So sign up now@chumbacasino.com to claim your free welcome bonus. That's chumbacasino.com and live the Chumba life. No purchase necessary. VGW Revoid or prohibited by law. See terms and conditions 18 + the world is yours. Men have searched the earth, the air, even the sun and stars in their never ending quest for knowledge. And now, in this NBC educational feature, the United States Department of the Interior Office of Education brings you the wonders of that unique establishment, the Smithsonian Institution, dedicated to the increase and diffusion of knowledge. Since the dawn of time, man has ventured to the far ends of the earth in search of secrets for the preservation and prolongation of life. Men have gone down to the sea in ships for cod liver oil, into the bowels of the earth for minerals, into the jungles for plants. And have even harnessed the chemical messengers of their own bodies, seeking the answer to a longer life. Their discoveries have made your life and mine a safer and happier one. Today we bring you stories from the bottles on the druggist shelves. What? No 3 cent stamps? What kind of a drugstore is this? Well, I'm awfully sorry. You never have stamps. When I want them. I'll take my business somewhere else. Well, well, what was the matter with that old sour puss that just went out? Ah, that's my friend. Very good custom. Comes in here, pokes over everything in the store and then buys a 3 cent stamp. One 3 cent stamp? Well, that's what you get for running a drugstore. Oh. Well, how's the wife, Jim? First rate, thanks. The little girl? Well, not so good. Doctor says she's run down. No appetite. He gave me this prescription to have filled for her. Now, let's see. Oh, sure. I can have it for you in a few minutes. Shall I wait? Yeah, come on out and back. I've got another little job to do and then I'll get to this one. Can I sit on this box? Yeah, go ahead. And what are you mixing? A prescription for Mrs. Schwartz's liver. Her liver's acting up again. Mrs. Schwartz's liver? Annie Tucker's sore throat, Gramp Johnson's rheumatism. Boy, you sure know all the neighborhood ailments, don't you? Yeah, you get to know them all after a while. And just one pill after another, huh? Pills and thrills, Jim. Thrills filling prescriptions. Sure, it's a thrill. Have you ever stopped to think where the neighborhood would be without this old drugstore? I don't get it. Well, take Lou Masters for instance. Remember last winter he came running over here in the middle of the night, said his little girl was awful sick, that had the doctor needed a prescription filled right away. Poor kid might have died if I hadn't been here. You know, George, I never thought of it that way before. Yes, it's kind of nice to know that your work is more than just filling bottles and making pills. Well, you sure got plenty of both in here. There are thousands of them. Drugs and medicines to fight just about every disease known to mankind. No, it certainly is wonderful when you stop to think of it. Yes, but do you think people appreciate that? They do not. Why, every person in the United States sometime during his life has had to depend on drugs or medicines to keep him in good health. Yet not more than one out of a hundred knows where our everyday medicines come from. Well, it's just because all these drugs and medicines are so convenient. That's why they never think about it. Oh, that's true, all right. Why, take yourself, for instance. Look at this bottle of aspirin. Do you know where it comes from or how it's made? Well, now, I'll be frank with you. I haven't the slightest idea. There you are. You've used aspirin a hundred times and still you haven't the faintest notion what it is. Well, I suppose it's. No, gosh, I don't know. But what if I told you that aspirin was made from an acid obtained from wintergreen? That's right, salicylic acid. Aspirin is a synthetic compound. Nature has nothing to do with making it. Well, all drugs aren't made in chemical laboratories, are they? Oh, no, no, no. Nature supplies most of our drugs. Take this digitalis for instance. It's a vegetable drug. This insulin here is an animal drug. Well, now, how about this box of Epsom salts? That's a mineral drug. Oh, I get it. There are drugs from all three kingdoms, animal, vegetable and mineral. That's right. And then as I said before, there are man made drugs. Some man made drugs are exactly like drugs that nature makes. Other kinds nature has Never made like aspirin. Well, now, how about antitoxins? You know, like the stuff they inject in your arm to prevent you from getting diphtheria. We call those biological drugs. I don't suppose you handle any of the raw materials from which these drugs are taken, do you? Yes, some. But I buy many medicines already made. The hardest job is done before I even get them. The substances from the plants or animals or minerals in which they are found are extracted and made into medicines by large organizations, especially equipped for the purpose pharmaceutical manufacturers. What does this say here? Cinchona. Hey, what's that? Well, that's the bark they obtained quinine from. Oh, so this is the bark that helps us fight off malaria. Well, that's it. One of the most indispensable drugs in use today. Yeah, well, I know I'd have been a dead man if it hadn't been for quinine last year. It really broke my fever for me. That's why it's so important. You see, a large portion of the population of the world is affected by malarial fever. No wonder doctors class it as one of their most indispensable drugs. It's really the only specific cure for malaria. Well, you know what puzzles me is how they ever discovered all these drugs. Now, how do they know that certain plants contain certain active principles? Well, lots of times they discover it by accident. For example, one of the most important heart medicines was discovered by accident. Which one was that? Well, I'll tell you the story first and then I'll show you the drug. It was a windy March night in the year 1775. Down the cobblestone street in the small English village, a horse drawn coach rattled its way. It stopped before a dimly lit hovel set far back from the street. Who is it? A friend named Norton. Open the door. What do you want this hour of the night? Open up, please. I'm Dr. Withering. It's very important. Go away. Oh, come, come, I'm not going to harm you. Someone's always bothering me, waking me at this hour of the night. May I come in, Dame Norton? You can tell me what you want right here. I understand you have a wonderful cure for dropsy. That's what I wanted to see you about. You haven't dropsy. I can see that you do. Of course I do. But I've heard so much about your wonderful cure for the disease. Oh, and you want me to tell you how I do it, eh? Yes, yes, that's it. And, well, you might just as well have stayed at Home? I'm not going to tell you. Oh, Dame Norton, please, no. Is that your potion brewing over there? Don't you dare put your foot in this door. That potion is none of your business. Get out now. Get out. But you don't have to push me. I'll go. Well, you go, then. And stay away. And if you see that man snooping around here, that man that was here last night, don't you dare let him get in, hear me? No, Mom, I left my basket of herbs out by the stoop. Go fetch them. Well, don't be so pokey about it. Oh, Judas. Ma' am, I can't do two things at once. Shut your face. I'll get them myself. I know I left them out here somewhere. You. What are you doing here? I thought I told you last night. Oh, yes, yes, yes, I know. I see you have some herbs in your basket. Don't go poking around in there. Get your fingers out of there. It's all right, Dame Norton. I see what you have now. Fox glove, eh? It isn't foxglove. Those are the leaves of the foxglove plant. Could that be the plant with the wonderful curative powers? Go away. Mind your own business. All right, I'll go. I'll go. And thank you, Dame Norton. Fox. Chloe. I knew there must be one plant among the 20 in the old lady's concoction which was good for dropsy. Oh, and what did you find? I found that the powerful something which strengthened and slowed the heartbeat was digitalis, which is only another name for the plant commonly called foxglove. It does have a wonderful effect on the heart, and I'm going to use it in my practice. And so today we have digitalis, one of the most important, if not the most important, drug used in fighting heart disease today. Is this it here? This leaf? That's it. And when you remember that heart diseases cause more death in the United States than any other disease, you can well see the value of this drug. And now over here is strychnine. Well, I thought that was a deadly poison. Well, it is when it's used in too great amounts. But when it's properly administered, it has marvelous effects on the nervous system. Oh, well, that's why they use it in making nerve tonics, eh? Yes, it's a sort of pick me up. Hey, is this what they get strychnine from, these little seeds? Yes, those are the dried, ripe seeds of the nux vomicant tree. Just think of that, though. Digitalis to remedy heart ailment. Quinine to kill bacteria in the blood. And strychnine to bolster up overworked nerves. Now, let me see. The digestion of food is an important function of the body. How about some drugs to help that along? Well, here are some. In this case, you see, there's pepsin and pancreatin, powerful digestants supplied by animals. And there's drastasi, from the vegetable kingdom, which can digest 50 times its own weight in starch. Oh, then of course, there are germicides, like this iodine here. Oh, yes, yes. And by the way, that is one of the best bacteria destroyers known to man. Oh, what a job it must be to round up all these different kinds of drugs and put them into a drugstore. You said something then. Just think of the places they have to go. To East Africa for clothes, to South America for cocaine. To India for the castor bean, from which they make castor oil. To Arabia for tannic acid, which is used in the treatment of severe burns. You know. Why, we could talk for hours about these vegetable drugs. There are so many of them, and each one with its own special characteristic and healing power. Some of them are older than history itself, others comparatively new. But they all play their part. And when they're placed on sale in the drugstore, health is just around the corner from us. You said something about mineral drugs a few moments ago. Oh, yes, yes, yes. These are the mineral drugs over here. Now, here are some of the bromides used by doctors. This white powder, those bromides make you sleep, don't they? Uh huh. They're indispensable as sedatives. Here's one thing I know is a powerful germicide. Carbolic acid. You're right. It's one of the most powerful antiseptics we have. Well, how come this drug here is placed right alongside of it? Acetanolid. Hey, they use that in headache powders, don't they? Yeah, that's right. But they both were given to us because of one discovery. And not only these, but other drugs like antipirin and whole lots more. Now, wait a minute. Now, you. You say one discovery made all these possible? Mm. A discovery made in 1856, one night in the laboratory of an English chemist named Perkin. William Perkin. Are you still working? Oh. Oh, come in. Martha, my dear. Don't you ever air out this old larity of yours? It has an awful smell. It's the coal tar. That's what smells so. William, sometimes I think you're crazy expecting to make quinine from that sticky blackstrap. But don't you see how valuable it would be if I could make quinine myself? Yes, but how do you ever expect to make it from coal tar? I don't know. I just have to keep working. And ruining your health? Oh, now look, my coal tar has boiled over. Here, here, take this pen. Now, don't get any of that stuff on you, William. Look at that color showing up in the coal tar. Reddish purple. Oh, well, that's nothing. I know it's not quinine. It's pretty, though. Isn't that just like a woman talking about pretty colors that don't mean a thing? Well, it's pretty no matter what you say. What are you going to do with it? Throw it away? Certainly. I'm looking for quinine, not colors. That peculiar dye which Poykin had discovered was the first of many marvelous products that were to be taken from coal tar. A byproduct obtained from destructive distillation of coal. Because of this discovery, many new drugs were subsequently given to the world. Acetanolid and many others. All from that sticky black tar. Well, this mineral drug exhibit isn't anywhere near as large as the vegetable drug collection. Well, that of course, is because we get more drugs from the vegetable kingdom. Oh, but don't think mineral drugs aren't important. Here are calcium compounds, for instance, for bone building, phosphorus, for diseases of the nervous system and the bones. Also calcium, phosphorus. Yes, why, I didn't know they were classed as drugs. I thought they were. Well, food essential. Yes, yes, they are, but they're drugs also. You see, the word drug means any preparation or medicine which is taken either internally or externally for the prevention or cure of disease. Calcium and phosphorus, of course, fall into that category. Well, we do get quite a few drugs from mineral sources at that. There's borax, mercury, some. What do they use mercury for, George? In making ointments and so forth. Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember the doctor gave me some of that mercuric ointment last year for a skin eruption. Now take a look over here at the animal drugs. Hey, look at these bottles. Hey, what's that stuff in them? Hello? It is Ryan. And I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino.com. i looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing? They were also playing Chumba Casino. Coincidence? I think not. Everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumba Casino is home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free, anytime, anywhere, even at 30,000ft. So sign up now@chumbacasino.com to claim your free welcome bonus. That's chumbacasino.com and live the Chumba life. No purchase necessary. VGW prohibited by law. See terms and conditions 18 plus. What's it look like? Well, this looks like liver. If I have a sore liver, and that's what it is, the liver is used as a medicine. They give it to people just like this? Oh no, no, no. They take the liver from animals such as cows and pigs after they make a concentrated extract of this liver. Why, it's given to persons suffering from anemia. Anemia? Well that's a disease of the blood, isn't it? Yes. Deficiency in the quality or quantity of the bloods. You see, when our own liver won't work for us, we take the liver from another animal and let it do the work. Work of increasing the number of red corpuscles in the blood. Oh, well then all these other things in the bottles here are glands and organs from animals. Yes. From which different medicines and drugs are made. Here's the pancreas of a pig, for instance. One of our most important drugs is made from that. And it's not a very old drug either. As old as liver extract? No. The drug which is made from the pancreatic glands of animals was discovered in Canada only 15 years ago. The birthplace of that marvelous discovery was the University of Toronto. It all started one fall evening in 1920. Dr. Frederick Banting was talking to Mr. Best at the university. They were discussing a disease in which they both had become interesting. You know, Mr. Best, I'm convinced that we're on the right track. At least we know what causes the diabetes. Yes, I think we are sure of that. Let's review the facts. Now we know that diabetes is a condition which makes it impossible for the body to digest all the sugars taken in. Right. Of course. And instead of becoming digested, the sugars are absorbed by the blood. Now why is it that the body can't digest these foods? Because of the under functioning of the pancreatic gland. In other words, enough secretion is not given off in the pancreatic gland to digest the sugars taken in. Right again, that's right. That's true. I think when we find a way to provide for the body's efficiency in this particular, we will have found a cure for diabetes. Oh, Mr. Best, I've been waiting for you. You look as though you'd found something. I have the germ of a wonderful Idea? My idea is to make an extract from the pancreatic glands of animals. Animals like horses and cows. Pancreatic glands? Yes. Go on. I will inject the extract directly into the bloodstream of a diabetic person. Why not let them swallow it? Oh, no, no, no. It can't be given that way. Its properties would be destroyed in the stomach. And what do you expect the extract to do? It will do the work the person's diabetic body can't do. You know, you know, I. I think you're on the right track. Well, I'm going to try it. At least you found it and it works too. At last, something to stop diabetes. The substance that's made from the pancreatic gland. And so insulin was given to the world, the only really helpful agent in the treatment of diabetes. You mean it actually cures the disease? No, no, no. You see, diabetes is a condition of the body which makes it impossible for the system to properly assimilate the sugar which the body must have. Insulin simply helps the disabled human pancreas gland to do the work it is unable to do. Oh, I see. Then in other words, when we have something wrong with one of the glands in our body, we simply take a medicine made from a similar organ from the body of a food animal and let it work for us, Is that it? Exactly. And even though the number of drugs obtained from animals are few, they're pretty important. You see, modern medicine would be seriously handicapped without them. Of course, we haven't named all the animal medicines or the other ways in which animals help us in making medicines. For instance, vaccines. Oh, you mean like small? That stuff they inject into your arm to prevent you from getting smallpox. That's what I mean. Have you ever stopped to wonder how that sort of thing is made? Yes, I have. Lots of times. Do you know that it's over a hundred years since the first vaccine was made? Oh, now wait a minute. I thought. Yes, yes, yes, yes. He told the world what caused disease. Germs. But another man named Jenner found out how to fight a certain disease without even knowing what caused it. He lived in England in 1796. Being a country doctor, he made many trips to the farms in his locality. And one day. Good morning, Sarah. Good morning, Dr. Jenner. How are you? Oh, fit as a fiddle. My, you look nice and rosy cheeked this morning. I've been working hard. Oh, come now, Sarah. You know your complexion is always nice and rosy. It's too bad there aren't more lovely complexions around here. My Mother used to have a nice place, but now look at her. Yes. Smallpox. Sarah. If only there was some way to stop it. I don't guess there is. Anyway. Sarah. Yes? Why haven't you ever had smallpox? Oh, I can't have smallpox. Dr. Jenner can't have smallpox. Why do you say that? I've had cowpox. No one that's had cowpox can have smallpox. No one that's had cowpox and have. Well, what makes you think that? Oh, I know it. Everybody on the farm knows that. Well, why do you suppose that is, Lord? I don't know, Dr. Jenner. It just works that way. Sarah, I love you. Oh, talk to. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't mean it that way. I mean, you've given me an idea, a wonderful idea. Do you mean to say that that stuff that you gave me was obtained from a cow? It was? But I don't understand. It has prevented me from getting smallpox. All right, but I don't see how. Mrs. Malcolm, you've heard of cowpox, haven't you? Yes, cows get it. Exactly. And I found out from a milkmaid a few months ago that persons who have had cowpox cannot get smallpox. But why is that? Well, I'm afraid I can't answer that question. But I do know that the milkmaid was right. When the pus from a cow which has cowpox is given to a person, he cannot get smallpox. I don't know what it is or why it is, but at last we have found a way to fight that dreaded disease. And so, with that discovery, the dreaded disease smallpox, began rapidly to disappear. Now it's very rare. Say, George, tell me something about antitoxins. Well, for example, in the case of diphtheria, the poison manufactured by the germs is removed from a person's body along with the germs themselves. That poison is injected into a horse, giving the animal diphtheria. The protective system of the horse produces antibodies to fight the disease. Horses overcome the disease in every case. Some of the blood of the horse is drawn, and it is the serum of that blood which is the antitoxin. Its injection into the person's body stimulates that body to protect itself by the manufacture of antibodies. Say nature has it all worked out. Yes, but we mustn't forget man made drugs. They become more important year by year. Well, I don't see why we bother to make drugs when nature's so good about furnishing us with them. Oh, we have to. Lots of times nature doesn't supply us with exactly the kind of drug we need. Other times, the supply of a certain drug is unreliable or rare. So man makes his own. Well, just as good as nature can. Many times, yes. Other times, man can't duplicate nature's work at all. That's why science works, works day and night to try and duplicate nature's work and make a rare drug more plentiful or a certain type more powerful. And even creates new ones, as I said. New ones. Such as novocaine. Dentistry would be a lot more painful without that. Oh, I know what I was going to ask you. Say, why do people take cod liver oil? Well, because cod liver oil contains vitamins which the human body needs and many times lacks. Vitamins. You know, that's one subject I've always been in the dark about. Well, even science is still in the dark about certain phases of the study themselves. They know that without certain vitamins, our bodies deteriorate. Without vitamin C, for instance, we have the disease scurvy. But what are vitamins? I mean, what do they look like? Well, in most cases we don't know because the vitamin hasn't been isolated. That's why we have to take the foods which we know contain the different vitamins instead of taking the vitamins alone. And these elusive little substances of what? Scientists lie awake nights trying to find her. Yes. And travel halfway around the world to find, uh. Oh, a story. Yes, the story of the search for vitamin C. It was only this year that the pursuit of products containing vitamin C carried a man all over Europe and even to America. One day in South St. Paul, a Hungarian doctor, Georgi, thought he had at last found what he was looking for. Well, there's no better place to get animals glands than here at the stockyards, Doctor. Yes, I know I can get what I want. But not enough of them to carry on my experiments. Now look, Doctor. Georgi, I'm not a scientist, see? But perhaps if you tell me exactly what you're looking for, I. I can help you. Well, here it is in a nutshell. As you Americans say, in our bodies there is a certain gland called the adrenal gland, which secretes the a certain substance vital to our life. We can't do without it. I see. Yes. Now, I have discovered something very odd. The secretion which is given off by the adrenal gland is called ascorbic acid, which is exactly the same as vitamin C. Oh, you, you mean like the same vitamin C that's in oranges and lemons? That's right. That's right. Now, I want you to find some large quantities of this ascorbic acid to carry on my experiment. You see, if we know where to find plentiful supplies of this ascorbic acid, we can use it to fight disease. Oh, that's why you want these adrenal glands you were talking about. Yes, yes, but I can't get enough ascorbic acid from the glands to help me, so I'll have to keep looking. There must be a more plentiful source somewhere. Perhaps in some food. Well, I must go back to Hungary and continue my search. I know I shall. Cookie. Here you are, Albert. A nice hot supper. M. Potatoes with paprika, Mama. Well, don't poke at them. Eat them while they are hot. Yes, yes. Oh, Mama, I'm so tired. Halfway around the world I've gone, and still I haven't found what I wanted. Well, you've analyzed everything under the sun. There isn't much left. Vitamin C, ascorbic acid. There must be a lot. Here, here, put some more paprika on your potatoes. Come, come now. Eat your dinner. Good old Hungarian paprika. Hungarian? I've never analyzed paprika. Albert, put that dish down and eat your dinner. Albert. Albert, sit down. Later, Mama, later. Keep supper waiting for me. I have work to do. Can you imagine that? The richest source of vitamin C in the world, right on my own table, Papa. This is wonderful, Mama. Wonderful. And there we have them all. Drugs from the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms. Antitoxins made by bacteria and animals and men all working together. Vitamins which are medicines in themselves and all of them just around the corn of rummers in the drugstore. See what I mean, Jim? Drugs aren't just drugs. They're storehouses for nature's wonders. Each one of them with a history and a special healing power. Translate those powers into health and happiness and mended bodies, and you can see just what our drugs and medicines mean to us. The World Is Yours, an NBC educational feature is a product of the Office of Education, United States Department of the Interior, and is written in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution. This week, the World Is Yours announces the publication of their new schedule of programs for the coming year. If you're interested in obtaining this beautifully illustrated folder, simply write to the World is Yours, Office of Education, United States Department of the interior in Washington, D.C. and your copy will be mailed to you upon receipt of your letter. Remember the address. The world is Yours, Office of Education, United States Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. next week. The World Is Yours takes us back to the days of colonial America. Stories of Christmas in the colonies, at Mount Vernon in Massachusetts, and in every early American home of the time. Remember next week, Christmas in colonial America. The original music heard on this program was composed by Rudolph Schramm. This is the National Broadcasting Company. Ryan Seacrest here. When you have a busy schedule, it's important to maximize your downtime. One of the best ways to do that is by going to chumbacasino.com Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino games like spin slots, bingo, and solitaire that you can play for free for a chance to redeem some serious prizes. So hop on to chumbacasino.com now and live the Chumba life. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group void where prohibited by law. 21/ Terms and Conditions apply.