His Medical Monument

The general public is little aware of the heroic and continuing fight against drug addiction in this country, but it is certain that when the great behind-the-scenes struggle with this tragic problem is widely known, the late Dr. Lyndon F. Small '20 will receive an honored place in the annals of the century's great medical advancements.

As acknowledged leader in a 25-year study to develop a non-addicting painkiller, Dr. Small laid the vast groundwork of research that made possible the announcement last year of the long-hoped-for discovery of NIH 7519. This new drug which is produced synthetically from coal tar derivatives has been hailed by the medical world as a synthetic pain-killer ten times as effective as morphine and not nearly so likely to become habit-forming. Thirty volunteers at the Federal Hospital for Narcotics Addicts in Lexington, Ky., are giving NIH 7519 the final test - on themselves - and if it proves as relatively non-addictive for man as it is for monkeys, it can be used effectively in the withdrawal of drugs from confirmed addicts.

After receiving his Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard in 1926, Dr. Small taught there and at M.I.T. In 1928 he was named professor of chemistry at the University of Virginia, where he remained until called to the National Institutes of Health as head chemist in 1939. Dr. Small had organized a drug-addiction research program at the university in 1934. When World War II threatened to cut off the supply of opium, the source of morphine, the government commissioned him to develop a pain-killing synthetic and, as a special project, to develop a synthetic anti-malarial drug to take the place of the rapidly diminishing supply of quinine. At the time of his death, in 1957, Dr. Small was considered the greatest international authority on narcotics.