Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet

Sinopse

Paul Ehrlich (Edward G. Robinson) is a physician working in a German hospital. He is dismissed for his constant disregard for hospital rules, which are bound by Bureaucracy red tape. The reason for his conflict is his steadily rising interest in research for selective color staining, the marking of cells and microorganisms, using certain dyes and marking agents, which, as he describes in the film, have a certain 'affinity' to that which is to be stained and nothing else. Emil Adolf von Behring (Otto Kruger), whom Dr. Ehrlich meets and befriends, while experimenting with his staining techniques, is impressed with Dr. Ehrlich's staining methods and refers to it as 'specific staining,' adding that this is one of the greatest achievements in science, especially for diagnostic purposes, based on optical microscope. After attending a medical presentation of one Dr. Robert Koch (Albert Basserman) showing that tuberculosis is a bacterial disease, Ehrlich is able to obtain a sample of the isolated bacterium. After an intense time of research and experimentation in his own lab, paired with a portion of luck, partly thanks to the empathy shown by his wife, he is able to develop a staining process for this bacterium. This result is honored by Koch and medical circles as a highly valuable contribution to diagnostics.