A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering We all know of the value of quinine, and our war in the tropics has greatly emphasized its importance, but it is not well known perhaps that the South American Indians used extract of quinine to treat malaria hundreds of years before a Jesuit priest brought the first knowledge of it back to civilization. Or perhaps we do not know that the leaves of the coca bush from which Cocaine is derived was used by these Indians to reduce pain in certain skull operations hundreds of years before anaesthetics were developed here. Only recently a material first mentioned by Sir Walter Raleigh 350 years ago has received a great deal Of attention from the medical profession. It is called Curare here and "the flying death" in the South American jungle. It gets its name "flying death" from the fact that it is used to tip the arrows shot by the Indians from their blow guns. |