Most of my scientific career has centered on organic compounds that act on the central nervous system with major emphasis on narcotic analgesics and their antagonists. However, during World War 11, our efforts at the National Institute (later to become Institutes) of Health (NIH) were diverted to the synthesis of potential antimalarial agents, substitutes for quinine, atabrine, and plasmochine. From this 5-year effort came two phenanthrene amino alcohols which reached the clincial stage of testing. The original designer of these alcohols as potential analgesics was Erich Mosettig, like Dr. Burger, a transplanted Austrian, from Ernst Spaeth's laboratory, University of Vienna. Dr. Mosettig was my Ph.D. advisor and research director at NIH until 1950. The second, ofChart I these compounds1 (chronologically) shown in Chart I was resurrected by Drs. David Jacobus and Thomas Sweeney, then at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research early in the Vietnam war. It proved to be curative for resistant strains of the deadly falciparum and vivax malarias and was used frequently throughout the war. Following this World War I1 hiatus during which time the totally synthetic analgesics pethidine, methadone, isomethadone, and 3-hydroxy-N-methylmorphinan had been developed in Germany and Switzerland, attention was again directed to the opioid scene. Our mission still was to provide analgesics that would relieve moderate to severe pain at safe doses and would cause minimal or no dependence and tolerance development.