34 DDT— Killer of Killers 



amazing results, and at the same time it forwarded this in- 

 formation to its American subsidiary, Geigy G)mpany, Inc., 

 in New York. It would be nice at this point if we could re- 

 peat the highly dramatic but totally false story that appeared 

 in some of our newspapers to the eifect that a quantity of 

 DDT was smuggled out of Switzerland in the best tradition 

 of a wartime spy thriller. However, the prosaic truth is that 

 the DDT was merely sent through regular channels from 

 Geigy in Switzerland to Geigy in New York. 



When Geigy in New York received this first shipment 

 of DDT, it submitted samples to the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture for testing. The results were phenomenal, and 

 another 200 pounds of DDT were imported from Switzer- 

 land and distributed to various Department of Agriculture 

 Experimental Stations throughout the United States. From 

 every source came startling confirmation of Geigy's claims. 



Colonel William S. Stone of the Surgeon General's Of- 

 fice was quick to realize how important it was to our armed 

 forces to have this miracle killer. At Orlando, Florida, 29 

 scientists, at the experiment station there, were assigned to 

 devote their entire energies to the development of DDT com- 

 positions for military uses. To these 29 men — many of 

 whom remain anonymous — many Italian citizens as well as 

 American troops owe their lives. It is the common fate of 

 technical men to go unrecognized for their efforts in behalf 

 of humanity, but we can at least express our appreciation to 

 three of the men, Dr. F. C. Bishop, Dr. Walter E. Dove and 

 Mr. E. F. Knipling, who played such an important role in 

 developing military uses for DDT. 



The value of DDT to our armed forces was soon clearly 

 demonstrated. Now it had to be turned out on a large scale. 

 American industry accepted the challenge in the same spirit 



