For #BlackHistoryMonth pharmaceutical #chemist Alice Ball (1892-1916) who developed 1st effective treatment for leprosy. 🧪🐡👩🏾‍🔬 #histsci Though her life was cut tragically short, her research saved 1000s from exile & painful, ineffective lifelong treatment for leprosy, & she was a trailblazer for 🧵 - ThreadSky

minouette.bsky.social • 75 days ago

For #BlackHistoryMonth pharmaceutical #chemist Alice Ball (1892-1916) who developed 1st effective treatment for leprosy. 🧪🐡👩🏾‍🔬 #histsci Though her life was cut tragically short, her research saved 1000s from exile & painful, ineffective lifelong treatment for leprosy, & she was a trailblazer for 🧵

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politicalbee.bsky.social•75 days ago

📌

minouette.bsky.social•75 days ago

women & Black scientists.⁠
⁠
Ball studied #chemistry at UW earning a BSc & 2nd degree in pharmacy 2 years later. She published “Benzoylations in Ether Solution,” in the prestigious J Am Chem Soc with her #pharmacy instructor. She was offered many scholarships & opted to return to Hawaii to pursue

minouette.bsky.social•75 days ago

her chemistry MSc investigating the active principle of Piper methysticum. She was both 1st woman & 1st Black graduate with a master’s degree from U Hawai’i. She became the 1st Black chemistry prof at the school.⁠
⁠
Dr. Harry T. Hollmann of Kalihi Hospital in Hawai’i & acting director of Kalihi

minouette.bsky.social•75 days ago

leprosy clinic, was unsatisfied with using chaulmoogra oil in its natural form to treat patients & wanted to isolate the active ingredients. He recruited Ball to help. Within a year, she was able to do what all had been unable to do for centuries. She isolated the active ingredients &

minouette.bsky.social•75 days ago

converted them to a form which could be circulated in the body. This breakthrough was so significant, she was offered an instructor position.⁠
⁠
Tragically, Ball became ill during her research & returned to Seattle for treatment. She may have been exposed to chlorine gas while demonstrating the use

minouette.bsky.social•75 days ago

of a gas mask in case of attack (as WWI was raging), but the cause of her death is unknown & she had yet to publish.⁠
⁠
The chemist & president of U Hawaii, Arthur L. Dean completed & published her study -calling it the “Dean Method”! Dr. Hollmann objected & documented how the technique should be

minouette.bsky.social•75 days ago

the “Ball Method”. Despite Hollmann’s efforts Ball’s achievements did not receive much recognition until historians highlighted her work in the 70s. Almost 90 years after her discovery, the U Hawaii finally recognized her work with a plaque on the school’s lone chaulmoogra tree in 2000,

scottmsinger-art.bsky.social•75 days ago

I really love seeing these - thanks for sharing

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