57. Flying Death

Short Stories
of Science and Invention

A Collection of Radio Talks by
Charles F. Kettering

Weekly, from September 1942 to July 1945, Charles F. Kettering gave five-minute intermission talks about Science and Invention during the radio broadcasts of the General Motors Symphony of the Air.

Kettering invented the first automobile self-starter, and for 31 years directed a research laboratory for General Motors.

These radio talks are a fascinating legacy from the mind of a prolific inventor. The obvious anachronisms now add a historical perspective of the war-time period in which they were written.

These web pages now preserve some of the most popular stories for a new generation to read The text and art come from a General Motors booklet of selected talks. (Reprint, March 1959)

57. Flying Death
A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering

     Just as Roger Bacon seven hundred years ago encouraged the alchemists of the Middle Ages to use a more scientific approach in their work, so our modern research men have taken the black magic of our South American jungle and separated the facts from the superstitions. By using this process they have uncovered several new principles of value to the doctor. The more we investigate the customs and medicines of so-called savage tribes, the more we appreciate their contributions to our modern world. Through their intimate contact with nature, and under the pressure of necessity, they have, through the centuries, developed or discovered drugs and cures that now have world-wide use.

     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.