Best broadcasts of 1939-40 (1940)

THE HUMAN ADVENTURE Klein. — Semmelweiss, you are discharged! Semmelweiss. — I have been expecting that, Dr. Klein. But I’ve proven my point. We know how to wipe out childbed fever. We have saved the lives of thousands of women. Klein. — You are impetuous. You quarrel and cannot take orders. Semmelweiss. — Wrong again, Dr. Klein. I can take orders. Good-by. Music. — In and behind. Narrator. — Disheartened, Semmelweiss left Vienna and for a time filled the chair of Professor of Obstetrics at the Univer¬ sity of Budapest. There he continued his experiment, success¬ ful experiments against death. But before the day that a backward and bigoted world would accept his amazing but simple discovery, Semmelweiss, the realist who hated obvi¬ ous sentiment, became a martyr. While working on childbed fever, he died of that same septic infection. Music. — Up and out. Narrator. — Sir William J. Sinclair, of the University of Man¬ chester wrote the epitaph. Music. — Sad and Sneak. Sinclair. — We deplore the martyrdom of Semmelweiss, but we can find some comfort in the reflection that he did not strug¬ gle in vain and that he did not suffer in vain. The whole civilized world was soon to enjoy the fruits of his discovery. He had thrown the light of scientific progress into a region hitherto shrouded in the darkness of Egyptian night. Music. — Up and down. Narrator. — Today, in America, in modern hospitals, cleanliness has all but banished childbed fever. The obstetrical proce¬ dure of the up-to-date physician throughout the country has made this dread disease a matter of ancient history. Music. — Up. Narrator. — Today in America, in the city of Chicago, there stands one of the most modern lying-in hospitals in the world. Founded by the courage and perseverance of the famous Professor Joseph B. De Lee of the University of 271