DDT—Before Silent Spring

An Extraordinary Insecticide.

In early June 1944 war-time censorship was lifted from one of the great scientific discoveries of World War II. "DDT will be to preventive medicine what Lister's discovery of antiseptics was to surgery," said Lt. Col. A. L. Ahnfeldt of the U.S. surgeon general's office. DDT stopped a typhus epidemic in Naples and promised to wipe out mosquitos and malaria; to eradicate the household fly, cockroach, and bedbug; and to control some of the most damaging insects that prey on the world's crops.

Amazing Properties.

DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was first synthesized in 1874 from chlorine, alcohol, and sulfuric acid. Its insecticidal powers were discovered in the middle 1930s. It remained active for weeks or even months, and it eliminated the need for repeated respraying. In 1944 the use of DDT as a delousing agent was publicly known for several months, when the army and the...

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