November 23, 2022 • 27 mins
Yves shares the story of Alice Ball, the first woman to get a master's degree from the College of Hawaii and so much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
I never told you protection of I Heart Radio, and
it is time for another edition of Female First, which
means we are once again joined by the wonderful, wondrous Eaves.
(00:26):
Welcome Eaves. Hi. I'm excited to be here, as I
am every time. Yes, and this is kind of a
special experimental thing we're doing today. Uh, because Sminty may
or may not be dipping our toes into TikTok. Maybe
I know, I know the horror, So we are kind
(00:50):
of unexpectedly recording this like video. I'll say, when we
say tiptoeing into TikTok, will be being told by our
gen z or researcher that we need is we need
to get into the we need to get into the
social media, so they will be controlling this aspect and
(01:12):
probably hopefully making us look better exactly. Yeah. But I'm
also concerned that the youth, as you say, Eves, are like,
oh no, please, this is the end of TikTok. I
have seen on TikTok They're like, please, if you're over thirty,
stop it. Well here we are like this is ours,
and I'm like, oh, but I like watching talk videos
(01:33):
and such. I think, you know, we can be sort
of quarantined to a certain area of TikTok. I think
that's okay. Oh yeah, le's true. They do have very
specific algorithms. So for those who are can we stop
to address the fact that he wants to go into
another type of quarantine that now you're putting listen to
(01:58):
a virtual box. Oh you're right, I'm sorry. I shouldn't
do that to you. Eves are very valued guests. This
is a poor star our TikTok careering into the mainstream.
That sounds like something somebody was saying in Dystopia. It
is dystopian. Have you not seen the news? Oh my gosh,
(02:20):
well yes, and we were just talking about nightmares we've
had um so a lot of I would say stress
is being felt by a lot of people. But you know,
this story that you bought today is equal parts inspiring
and heartbreaking. And I'm so again, I'm like stunned. I
didn't know about this, so I'm really really eager to
(02:42):
talk about it. Who did you bring for us today, Eves?
So today we're talking about Alice Ball. She was the
first black American to graduate from the University of Hawaii.
She was also the first woman to graduate from the
University of Hawaii with a master's degree in chemistry. She
was also the first Black American female chemistry instructor at
the university and the first Black American woman to be
(03:05):
published twice in the Journal of the American Chemical Society,
and that was in nineteen fourteen and in nineteen seventeen.
So she did all that work. And she was early
on in the research for leprosy, which is something that
has existed for a long time, which we'll talk about
also called Hanson's disease. But she was instrumental in developing
(03:29):
the first effective treatment against leprosy, which is tied to
something that people around the world we're using in a
medicinal way long before Alice Ball was ever born. But
she was instrumental in doing some of the lab work
that was like key to bringing it to a point
where people were able to use it as an injectable
(03:51):
and treatment of Hanson's disease. Yeah, and those aren't quite
a lot of first and she did it in such
a short amount of time. Yeah. We often I feel
like we often say on here, wow, they were so young.
They did so much in such a short period of time.
And it's true. It is true with her. She unfortunately
lived a short life, but accomplished a lot during it. Yes, yes,
(04:15):
so why don't get into it, let's do it. So.
She was born Alice Augusta Ball on July two in Seattle.
Her grandfather was a photographer in the nineteenth century, and
her father's name was James Pressley Ball, and he was
a newspaper editor a lawyer, and he was also a photographer.
So I spent set by some historians in the course
(04:36):
of her story that the chemicals they use in their photography,
because they were working with degara types and things like that,
that that may may have had some sort of influence
on the work that she did as a chemist. But
her mother was named Laura Louise Ball, and she Alice herself,
was the third of four children. Her older brothers were
(04:57):
William and Robert, and her younger sister was named d
and her family was relatively well off. They were around
middle class to upper middle class, and they lived in
Seattle until nineteen o two, but her grandfather was dealing
with arthritis, so the family then moved to Hawaii and
(05:17):
hopes that the better climate would help out with his health.
They lived in downtown Honolulu when they went to Hawaii,
and Alice went to school at a place called Central
Grammar from nineteen o two to nineteen o four. But
around that time her father died and then the family
moved back to Seattle and she went to Seattle High
School and she graduated in nineteen ten. She did really
(05:39):
well in school and particularly in her science classes, so
it makes sense that she moved on to continue to
work in science. She then attended the University of Washington,
where she got two Bachelor of Science degrees. She got
one in pharmaceutical chemistry in nineteen twelve and she got
another one in pharmacy in nineteen fourteen. So these are
(06:00):
things that were not super common happening back then in
terms of women and specifically black women and the academic
sciences and getting their master's degrees and moving into fields
as professors as well in the sciences was something that
that was not common at the time. She published an
(06:21):
article with her pharmacy teacher in the Journal of the
American Chemical Society called Benzo relations an ether Solution, and
she chose to get her master's degree from the College
of Hawaii, and it was at that point she graduated
that happened in June of nineteen fifteen. Her thesis at
the time was called the Chemical Constituents of Piper methysticum
(06:44):
the Chemical constituents of the active principle of avarut also
known as cava rout. She studied that plant to see
how it could be injected as a treatment for medical condition,
which ties into her later work. Upon graduating from a
College of Hawaii, she came the first woman and the
first black person to graduate from the school with a
(07:05):
master's degree. So from nineteen fifteen to nineteen sixteen, she
also taught chemistry at the college and she became the
(07:27):
first black woman professor in the chemistry department. And while
she was teaching at the school, man named Dr. Harry T.
Holman asked her to research how to make chalmugra oil
better at treating people with Hanson's disease, which was, like
I mentioned earlier, also known as leprosy. So Holman was
(07:49):
an assistant surgeon at a hospital in Hawaii called Kalihi
and he worked with patients with Hanson's disease. And so
there's a long history of leprosy and how it was
treated across the world over many centuries, but also in
the US and Hawaii has its own specific history of leprosy.
(08:09):
I'm sure a lot of people have heard the terminology
leper colonies a place that people who had leprosy were
directed to, And of course there's also a lot of
stigma around the actual condition of leprosy, and because of that,
there's also stigma around the word of leprosy that when
people hear leprosy they may associate it with certain things.
(08:31):
If they're not they don't have a deep or even
a surface understanding of how leprosy actually affects people. It
causes discoloration of the skin, it causes ulcers, muscle weakness
or paralysis, and even things like i issues that may
lead to blindness and other symptoms that are related to
the skin and too. Nerve damage and the bacteria that
(08:53):
caused the disease were identified in eighteen seventy three by
a Norwegian physician, but like I said, by that point
it had the condition had been around for a really
long time. There's evidence that its existed for thousands of years,
and in the United States in the twentieth century, one
way that doctors commonly tried to handle leprosy patients was
(09:15):
by isolating them. It's just like, well, we think they're
really contagious and we don't really know what to do
with them. But if they're really contagious and it spreads easily,
we don't want everybody else to have it, So we're
going to just contain them to a specific area based
on the limited knowledge and also all of the stereotypes
that were happening around people who had hands his disease
(09:36):
at the time, so they were sent to leprosy hospitals
and to so called leper colonies, and as what often
happens to of course, there are many other demographic and
sociological issues tied up into the way that people were
treated and isolated. So a lot of people who were
in Hawaii. Of course, most of those people who were
sent to this communities of people who at leprosy were
native Hawaiians, but there were other ethnicities who were there
(10:00):
as well, And of course Hawaii is very isolated and
that made it the quote unquote perfect place to isolate
people who had leprosy. But anyway, one of these kinds
of communities existed in Hawaii called Papa, and people with
advanced cases of the disease were often forcibly transferred there
(10:21):
and they lived in exile basically and often for their
entire lives. The stigma existed around leprosy because of all
the biases that people had, the ignorance about how the
disease worked, how the condition affected people physically, because it
did have physical effects, These things that people saw and
(10:46):
viewed people in a different way morally because of it.
Didn't understand how it spread. They thought it was really contagious,
which is not that contagious, definitely not as contagious as
people thought it was back then. They considered them unclean morally,
inferior or less lesser than from a social status standpoint.
So all of these things were wrapped up into why
(11:07):
people were isolated who had Handson's disease, which at the
time um but people who had this all over the world,
So it wasn't just happening in Hawaii, and that wasn't
the case over all the time. Even though it did
migrate from Europe and Asia over to the America's, it
didn't always exist in America's But isolation wasn't the only
(11:28):
way that doctors treated handsons um for a while. Like
I said earlier, people around the world did use chal
mugra oil from the Chalmuga tree. People in India and
China were using this medicinally and it was used to
treat handsons as well as other skin conditions. And so
some of these trees at a point were planted in Hawaii.
(11:51):
But doctors in the US, we're having trouble treating it
effectively with that oil. The oral doses were nauseating, and
injecting it could be painful and it could cause skin abscesses.
So they are in there's a problem that needs a
solution that people realize, Hey, this talmugra oil has been
(12:17):
used for many, many years and other societies, so they
already clearly have medicinal knowledge of how it's used for
this condition, but it could be improved upon. And so
that's where Holman comes in. And then that's where Alice
Ball comes in as well. So basically at that point
Ball was doing double duty. She was doing all of
(12:37):
her teaching work during the day and on the side
she was working on making this talmugra water soluble and
able to be injected into patients who had leprosy and
Arthur L. Dean, who was then a chemistry professor, helped
her with this work. She ended up being successful at
creating that injectable that was made with the components of
(13:00):
the oil. She used freezing the oil to help her
make that injectable and then after that many people were
released from isolation in the wake of that discovery. But unfortunately,
Alice Ball did die very young in nineteen sixteen. She
it was reported that she inhaled chlorine gas in one
(13:22):
of the classes that she was teaching, but her death
certificate also set touberculosis, so there is some debate over
how Alice Ball actually died. She got sick um and
couldn't publish her finding, so she didn't publish her findings
before she passed away. She had went back to Seattle
(13:43):
from Hawaii in October of nineteen sixteen and died in
December thirty one, so that year, and she was only
twenty four years old. And Dean, Arthur Dean, he did
continue her work after she died, but he didn't credit
her for her work in this publication. And here in
lies one of those stories that feels like it's apocryphal
(14:03):
or like some sort of odd, terrible archetype of things
happening in history, where it's like the man takes credit
for everything that the woman did, but that is what
happened in this case. The method became known as the
Dean method, which is like throwing salt on the wound,
and a bunch of treatment was of The treatment was
(14:27):
produced and used around the world. That had a bunch
of potential and people were really hopeful that it would
make a big difference. But and and then there were
no Handson's patients who had Hanson's disease who were sent
to Cloud Papa between nineteen nine and the injection was
(14:47):
used to treat people for years, but by the end
of the nineteen twenties, people realized that the treatment wouldn't
be a complete cure or help to completely set Cloud
Papa down. Shut it down down, Tom we were Oil
was replaced by treatments that were more effective medications by
the time of the nineteen forties and beyond. So in
(15:11):
the work that Arthur Dean published in nineteen twenty two,
he mentioned Ball's work in researching the treatment, so he
rolled it back and he was like, no, you know,
Alice Ball was the one who did this work. You know,
she was a pioneer in this research that was done
in order to create this treatment that helped people. And
here's a quote from that publication. He said, quote about
(15:35):
the time that Rogers and Ghosh were starting their investigations
in India. In Hawaii, I interested miss Alice Ball, MS
and instructress in chemistry at the College of Hawaii in
the chemical problem of obtaining for me the active agents
in the oil of child mugra. After a great amount
of experimental work, Miss Ball solved the problem for me
(15:56):
by making the ethyl esters of the fatty acids found
in tell mugra oil, employing the technique here with described.
And he goes on and he proceeds to describe what
he calls Ball's method. So reattribution is happening there. So
there were people who came across her work, Catherine to Car,
(16:17):
I think it is in Stanley Alei who came across
her work and records in the nineteen seventies. And it
was a long time. It was a long time when
her work just the fact that she had done it,
and that, you know, Dean did reattribute the work to her,
But that didn't really people still didn't really know about it.
You know, it was still Dean's method. He was the
one who had helped get this treatment out to everybody,
(16:39):
and Ball's contributions weren't specifically and deeply known. So they
brought that back to light and over time, over the
most the past few decades, her work has been more recognized.
In two thousand seven, the University of Hawaii gave her
the Regent's Medal of Distinction. And back in two thousand
(17:01):
Hawaii did proclaim February twenty nine to be Alice Ball Day,
but of course that is the day that only occurs
on leap years, so because it only happens every four years,
the governor Hawaii went ahead and said, okay, February two
just this year, he said that that was Alice Augusta
Ball Day. And in terms of leprosy overall, many more
(17:22):
advancements have been made since Alice Ball did her work.
People with Hanson's disease do have a cure that is
available to them now and it's largely tweeted with antibiotics.
(17:46):
So that's the story of Alice Ball is she did
a lot in her twenty four years, and she accrued
a lot of first as well. And I'm just I'm
really happy that her work is being wrecked eatonized now
because it is one of those cases of somebody else
(18:08):
not only taking credit for her work, but doing it
in a very in a very deep way where it's like, no,
this this is in my name, The actual method is
in my name, and that it was able to be
reattributed to her is a good thing. Yeah, I'm glad that.
(18:28):
I'm glad about that too, But it is kind of
like you did it when it was too late, like
everybody knows it as this now, and um, it was
sort of when all these other developments were happening. So
I am very glad it happened. Also, I've never heard
the word instructuress before. That was a new one for me.
(18:48):
But yeah, I wish It's so tragic that she died
so young, and she'd already done so much, so who
knows how much more she could have accomplished, and she
had such an impact. And yeah, it was a story
I had never heard of. I really didn't know much
about leprosy, to be honest, So I'm so again, I'm
(19:11):
so happy that you bought this to our attention. I'm
happy she's getting the recognition she could serve, the very
sad she didn't get it in her life earlier. There's
a lot like when you look at the context of
when this occurred, there's so many things to unpack, um
because even today we know that when it comes to women,
and especially Marsin's women, especially black women, and stem or
steam is rare still like to the fact that people
(19:34):
are still questioning, you know, women being doctors, a black
woman being a doctor, or you know, anything in the
science field, engineering field. So it's lovely to see that
she broke down these walls so early on. It's awful
to think that she didn't get that credit until what
late nineties slash early two thousand's and looking and finally
(19:55):
Hawaii like, yeah, she definitely did these things. But also
like we understand and it was in the late eight
hundred's early nineteen hundreds, had been in the process of
being colonized the entire time, and there was there was
battles happening for that land and that resources, even to
the point that today, hey, people don't recognize or I
don't even know the history of Hawaii, Like it took
(20:16):
me to the last five years I understand, Oh oh yeah,
they really were really were like colonized and taking advantage
of and still are to this day, kind of saying
with Puerto Rico. Whole different episode, but these conversations of
like how this laid out and then having this deep
history trying to unearthed and remember some of the amazing
things that did occur at the same time, as well
(20:38):
as the fact again yes, that she was a young
black woman coming into a field being an instructor, which
again amazes me and I was like, wow, I wonder
again like the battles that she had to go through. Again,
you had said that she came from a pretty well
to do. Does that's the word I want that re?
(20:59):
I'm like, how do I say this? Um? But still,
you know there were challenges, you know, there are so
many uphill battles for her and her family. UM. And
the fact that she was an instructor and was able
to instruct other people in this field is phenomenal. And
maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion in that I
really wish it didn't have to be a big deal.
(21:20):
But of course, like I said, even today, is still
kind of a big deal. Like seeking people who are
able to uh continue in this field and to thrive
in this field. It's difficult because of all the obstacles
that are placed in front of a marginalized people in general.
So her stories beyond amazing. And even if she hadn't
done this method, which she did, which is an amazing
(21:41):
feat and she should be credited for that work, the
things that she had already done is an accomplishment in itself.
Again and for me as a person who has no
understanding of science hardly at all. And then like the
things I know of leprosy comes from like biblical teachings,
which pretty much submit unclean. That's what we know. That
(22:02):
that's a lot of people's experience, Santhem. I'm smart, it's fine, um,
But like all of these things come into play that
you're like, wow, this this information, this story, there's so
many folds to this that in her young life there again,
as you said, there's so many first that she should
have been accredited with that we should be talking about.
And how amazing this individual and I hope her support system.
(22:25):
So it seems we're able to get her to this place,
for her to work and fight for this place again
kind of diminished by the fact that people try to
take credit for her work. Of course, um, but at
least we are finally hearing about it. Like, there's so
many things to this, and I'm like fascinating, really want
to dig deep into, like who was this woman? And
how did she get there? Down? Now my phone down,
(22:53):
there's just it's just my my scattered mind to thinking
about all the processes of like how, wow, where does
she come from? How to this go? Why haven't we
talked about this more? Why aren't we talking about this more? Again?
I would have had no idea had you not brought
this to us, Like this woman would not have been
familiar to me at all. And it's one of those
things where you wonder if she would she have even
(23:16):
ended up doing this work if she didn't end up
in Hawaii serendipitously. It's like, of course, it was for
an unfortunate reason that she did end up going to
Hawaii for the illness um and her family, but because
she ended up there, she ended up there in proximity
to a challenge that was happening on the island at
(23:37):
the time, which is that these people were in isolation
and she was there to help come up with treatment
for them. So it's one of those things where it's like,
clearly she ended up there for a reason. She was
able to help in the work that she was doing
there in the short amount of time that she did
have on this earth. Yeah. Um. And sometimes with these
(24:04):
I get a little, you know, almost scared of like
what if what if this guy had never said she
didn't do this and people don't do the research and
then they don't know. But I'm always hopeful when you
come on you because you're like, no, people are doing
this research. The people won't be forgotten. Um, So thank you,
thank you, thank you for for bringing these people to
us and these amazing stories to us. Yeah, I'm happy
(24:25):
to thank you, like thank goodness for all these people
who are doing these things right. Yes, yes, honestly, so much.
There are so many moments when you talk about this
one person discovered this one name, and then they went
down this rabbit hole and discovered this whole new aspect
of this that I'm like, oh my god. It literally
(24:46):
was like a detail that they got and they just like,
this looks important. Yeah. Yeah, you have to be committed
to the idea of something to believe in something that
maybe has never been come behind in certain ways before
the other people wouldn't may never think to work on.
So I think that's really admirable in some of these
people's stories too. So to those people who continue to
(25:07):
dig deep, thank you, and that includes you, Eves. Thank you.
And if people call you weird, it's okay. It's okay
because people probably will call you weird for doing some
of these things, but just know that greatness is in
the future for you. We would never because we really
really appreciate all of you. Yes, well, thanks as always
(25:30):
Eaves for coming on. Um. Where can the good listeners
find you? You can find me on many many other
episodes of stuff Mom Never told You doing, other female
firsts and history about other amazing women who had innovations,
breakthroughs and first You can also find me on a
line on Instagram at not Apologizing. You can also find
(25:53):
me on Twitter at Eaves Jeff Cote and if all
else fails, just go to Eves Jeff Cote dot com.
That's why I v s J E F F C
O A T dot com. Yes, yes, yes, sobat that
I were just talking about the stress of spelling things
on podcasts. I don't know why. It's I'm stressful. I'm like, nope,
I'm gonna do it because I'm gonna buss it up.
(26:14):
It's like a panic moment. It's interesting. Well, go and
check Eves out listeners. If you haven't already online uh.
If you want to contact us, you can our emails
stepping your mom Stuff at iHeart media dot com. You
can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or
on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks as
always to our super producer Christina, thank you. Thanks to
(26:35):
you for listening, and also Eves, thanks for being part
of this TikTok experiment. You may or may not see
it listeners, I don't know. And thanks to Joey who
is ahead of the whenever they start this. Thank you, yes,
thank You're sorry. Step I've Never Told You This production
of y Radio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio,
you can check out the high Radio app Apple podcast,
where you listen to your favorite shows
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
I never told you protection of I Heart Radio, and
it is time for another edition of Female First, which
means we are once again joined by the wonderful, wondrous Eaves.
(00:26):
Welcome Eaves. Hi. I'm excited to be here, as I
am every time. Yes, and this is kind of a
special experimental thing we're doing today. Uh, because Sminty may
or may not be dipping our toes into TikTok. Maybe
I know, I know the horror, So we are kind
(00:50):
of unexpectedly recording this like video. I'll say, when we
say tiptoeing into TikTok, will be being told by our
gen z or researcher that we need is we need
to get into the we need to get into the
social media, so they will be controlling this aspect and
(01:12):
probably hopefully making us look better exactly. Yeah. But I'm
also concerned that the youth, as you say, Eves, are like,
oh no, please, this is the end of TikTok. I
have seen on TikTok They're like, please, if you're over thirty,
stop it. Well here we are like this is ours,
and I'm like, oh, but I like watching talk videos
(01:33):
and such. I think, you know, we can be sort
of quarantined to a certain area of TikTok. I think
that's okay. Oh yeah, le's true. They do have very
specific algorithms. So for those who are can we stop
to address the fact that he wants to go into
another type of quarantine that now you're putting listen to
(01:58):
a virtual box. Oh you're right, I'm sorry. I shouldn't
do that to you. Eves are very valued guests. This
is a poor star our TikTok careering into the mainstream.
That sounds like something somebody was saying in Dystopia. It
is dystopian. Have you not seen the news? Oh my gosh,
(02:20):
well yes, and we were just talking about nightmares we've
had um so a lot of I would say stress
is being felt by a lot of people. But you know,
this story that you bought today is equal parts inspiring
and heartbreaking. And I'm so again, I'm like stunned. I
didn't know about this, so I'm really really eager to
(02:42):
talk about it. Who did you bring for us today, Eves?
So today we're talking about Alice Ball. She was the
first black American to graduate from the University of Hawaii.
She was also the first woman to graduate from the
University of Hawaii with a master's degree in chemistry. She
was also the first Black American female chemistry instructor at
the university and the first Black American woman to be
(03:05):
published twice in the Journal of the American Chemical Society,
and that was in nineteen fourteen and in nineteen seventeen.
So she did all that work. And she was early
on in the research for leprosy, which is something that
has existed for a long time, which we'll talk about
also called Hanson's disease. But she was instrumental in developing
(03:29):
the first effective treatment against leprosy, which is tied to
something that people around the world we're using in a
medicinal way long before Alice Ball was ever born. But
she was instrumental in doing some of the lab work
that was like key to bringing it to a point
where people were able to use it as an injectable
(03:51):
and treatment of Hanson's disease. Yeah, and those aren't quite
a lot of first and she did it in such
a short amount of time. Yeah. We often I feel
like we often say on here, wow, they were so young.
They did so much in such a short period of time.
And it's true. It is true with her. She unfortunately
lived a short life, but accomplished a lot during it. Yes, yes,
(04:15):
so why don't get into it, let's do it. So.
She was born Alice Augusta Ball on July two in Seattle.
Her grandfather was a photographer in the nineteenth century, and
her father's name was James Pressley Ball, and he was
a newspaper editor a lawyer, and he was also a photographer.
So I spent set by some historians in the course
(04:36):
of her story that the chemicals they use in their photography,
because they were working with degara types and things like that,
that that may may have had some sort of influence
on the work that she did as a chemist. But
her mother was named Laura Louise Ball, and she Alice herself,
was the third of four children. Her older brothers were
(04:57):
William and Robert, and her younger sister was named d
and her family was relatively well off. They were around
middle class to upper middle class, and they lived in
Seattle until nineteen o two, but her grandfather was dealing
with arthritis, so the family then moved to Hawaii and
(05:17):
hopes that the better climate would help out with his health.
They lived in downtown Honolulu when they went to Hawaii,
and Alice went to school at a place called Central
Grammar from nineteen o two to nineteen o four. But
around that time her father died and then the family
moved back to Seattle and she went to Seattle High
School and she graduated in nineteen ten. She did really
(05:39):
well in school and particularly in her science classes, so
it makes sense that she moved on to continue to
work in science. She then attended the University of Washington,
where she got two Bachelor of Science degrees. She got
one in pharmaceutical chemistry in nineteen twelve and she got
another one in pharmacy in nineteen fourteen. So these are
(06:00):
things that were not super common happening back then in
terms of women and specifically black women and the academic
sciences and getting their master's degrees and moving into fields
as professors as well in the sciences was something that
that was not common at the time. She published an
(06:21):
article with her pharmacy teacher in the Journal of the
American Chemical Society called Benzo relations an ether Solution, and
she chose to get her master's degree from the College
of Hawaii, and it was at that point she graduated
that happened in June of nineteen fifteen. Her thesis at
the time was called the Chemical Constituents of Piper methysticum
(06:44):
the Chemical constituents of the active principle of avarut also
known as cava rout. She studied that plant to see
how it could be injected as a treatment for medical condition,
which ties into her later work. Upon graduating from a
College of Hawaii, she came the first woman and the
first black person to graduate from the school with a
(07:05):
master's degree. So from nineteen fifteen to nineteen sixteen, she
also taught chemistry at the college and she became the
(07:27):
first black woman professor in the chemistry department. And while
she was teaching at the school, man named Dr. Harry T.
Holman asked her to research how to make chalmugra oil
better at treating people with Hanson's disease, which was, like
I mentioned earlier, also known as leprosy. So Holman was
(07:49):
an assistant surgeon at a hospital in Hawaii called Kalihi
and he worked with patients with Hanson's disease. And so
there's a long history of leprosy and how it was
treated across the world over many centuries, but also in
the US and Hawaii has its own specific history of leprosy.
(08:09):
I'm sure a lot of people have heard the terminology
leper colonies a place that people who had leprosy were
directed to, And of course there's also a lot of
stigma around the actual condition of leprosy, and because of that,
there's also stigma around the word of leprosy that when
people hear leprosy they may associate it with certain things.
(08:31):
If they're not they don't have a deep or even
a surface understanding of how leprosy actually affects people. It
causes discoloration of the skin, it causes ulcers, muscle weakness
or paralysis, and even things like i issues that may
lead to blindness and other symptoms that are related to
the skin and too. Nerve damage and the bacteria that
(08:53):
caused the disease were identified in eighteen seventy three by
a Norwegian physician, but like I said, by that point
it had the condition had been around for a really
long time. There's evidence that its existed for thousands of years,
and in the United States in the twentieth century, one
way that doctors commonly tried to handle leprosy patients was
(09:15):
by isolating them. It's just like, well, we think they're
really contagious and we don't really know what to do
with them. But if they're really contagious and it spreads easily,
we don't want everybody else to have it, So we're
going to just contain them to a specific area based
on the limited knowledge and also all of the stereotypes
that were happening around people who had hands his disease
(09:36):
at the time, so they were sent to leprosy hospitals
and to so called leper colonies, and as what often
happens to of course, there are many other demographic and
sociological issues tied up into the way that people were
treated and isolated. So a lot of people who were
in Hawaii. Of course, most of those people who were
sent to this communities of people who at leprosy were
native Hawaiians, but there were other ethnicities who were there
(10:00):
as well, And of course Hawaii is very isolated and
that made it the quote unquote perfect place to isolate
people who had leprosy. But anyway, one of these kinds
of communities existed in Hawaii called Papa, and people with
advanced cases of the disease were often forcibly transferred there
(10:21):
and they lived in exile basically and often for their
entire lives. The stigma existed around leprosy because of all
the biases that people had, the ignorance about how the
disease worked, how the condition affected people physically, because it
did have physical effects, These things that people saw and
(10:46):
viewed people in a different way morally because of it.
Didn't understand how it spread. They thought it was really contagious,
which is not that contagious, definitely not as contagious as
people thought it was back then. They considered them unclean morally,
inferior or less lesser than from a social status standpoint.
So all of these things were wrapped up into why
(11:07):
people were isolated who had Handson's disease, which at the
time um but people who had this all over the world,
So it wasn't just happening in Hawaii, and that wasn't
the case over all the time. Even though it did
migrate from Europe and Asia over to the America's, it
didn't always exist in America's But isolation wasn't the only
(11:28):
way that doctors treated handsons um for a while. Like
I said earlier, people around the world did use chal
mugra oil from the Chalmuga tree. People in India and
China were using this medicinally and it was used to
treat handsons as well as other skin conditions. And so
some of these trees at a point were planted in Hawaii.
(11:51):
But doctors in the US, we're having trouble treating it
effectively with that oil. The oral doses were nauseating, and
injecting it could be painful and it could cause skin abscesses.
So they are in there's a problem that needs a
solution that people realize, Hey, this talmugra oil has been
(12:17):
used for many, many years and other societies, so they
already clearly have medicinal knowledge of how it's used for
this condition, but it could be improved upon. And so
that's where Holman comes in. And then that's where Alice
Ball comes in as well. So basically at that point
Ball was doing double duty. She was doing all of
(12:37):
her teaching work during the day and on the side
she was working on making this talmugra water soluble and
able to be injected into patients who had leprosy and
Arthur L. Dean, who was then a chemistry professor, helped
her with this work. She ended up being successful at
creating that injectable that was made with the components of
(13:00):
the oil. She used freezing the oil to help her
make that injectable and then after that many people were
released from isolation in the wake of that discovery. But unfortunately,
Alice Ball did die very young in nineteen sixteen. She
it was reported that she inhaled chlorine gas in one
(13:22):
of the classes that she was teaching, but her death
certificate also set touberculosis, so there is some debate over
how Alice Ball actually died. She got sick um and
couldn't publish her finding, so she didn't publish her findings
before she passed away. She had went back to Seattle
(13:43):
from Hawaii in October of nineteen sixteen and died in
December thirty one, so that year, and she was only
twenty four years old. And Dean, Arthur Dean, he did
continue her work after she died, but he didn't credit
her for her work in this publication. And here in
lies one of those stories that feels like it's apocryphal
(14:03):
or like some sort of odd, terrible archetype of things
happening in history, where it's like the man takes credit
for everything that the woman did, but that is what
happened in this case. The method became known as the
Dean method, which is like throwing salt on the wound,
and a bunch of treatment was of The treatment was
(14:27):
produced and used around the world. That had a bunch
of potential and people were really hopeful that it would
make a big difference. But and and then there were
no Handson's patients who had Hanson's disease who were sent
to Cloud Papa between nineteen nine and the injection was
(14:47):
used to treat people for years, but by the end
of the nineteen twenties, people realized that the treatment wouldn't
be a complete cure or help to completely set Cloud
Papa down. Shut it down down, Tom we were Oil
was replaced by treatments that were more effective medications by
the time of the nineteen forties and beyond. So in
(15:11):
the work that Arthur Dean published in nineteen twenty two,
he mentioned Ball's work in researching the treatment, so he
rolled it back and he was like, no, you know,
Alice Ball was the one who did this work. You know,
she was a pioneer in this research that was done
in order to create this treatment that helped people. And
here's a quote from that publication. He said, quote about
(15:35):
the time that Rogers and Ghosh were starting their investigations
in India. In Hawaii, I interested miss Alice Ball, MS
and instructress in chemistry at the College of Hawaii in
the chemical problem of obtaining for me the active agents
in the oil of child mugra. After a great amount
of experimental work, Miss Ball solved the problem for me
(15:56):
by making the ethyl esters of the fatty acids found
in tell mugra oil, employing the technique here with described.
And he goes on and he proceeds to describe what
he calls Ball's method. So reattribution is happening there. So
there were people who came across her work, Catherine to Car,
(16:17):
I think it is in Stanley Alei who came across
her work and records in the nineteen seventies. And it
was a long time. It was a long time when
her work just the fact that she had done it,
and that, you know, Dean did reattribute the work to her,
But that didn't really people still didn't really know about it.
You know, it was still Dean's method. He was the
one who had helped get this treatment out to everybody,
(16:39):
and Ball's contributions weren't specifically and deeply known. So they
brought that back to light and over time, over the
most the past few decades, her work has been more recognized.
In two thousand seven, the University of Hawaii gave her
the Regent's Medal of Distinction. And back in two thousand
(17:01):
Hawaii did proclaim February twenty nine to be Alice Ball Day,
but of course that is the day that only occurs
on leap years, so because it only happens every four years,
the governor Hawaii went ahead and said, okay, February two
just this year, he said that that was Alice Augusta
Ball Day. And in terms of leprosy overall, many more
(17:22):
advancements have been made since Alice Ball did her work.
People with Hanson's disease do have a cure that is
available to them now and it's largely tweeted with antibiotics.
(17:46):
So that's the story of Alice Ball is she did
a lot in her twenty four years, and she accrued
a lot of first as well. And I'm just I'm
really happy that her work is being wrecked eatonized now
because it is one of those cases of somebody else
(18:08):
not only taking credit for her work, but doing it
in a very in a very deep way where it's like, no,
this this is in my name, The actual method is
in my name, and that it was able to be
reattributed to her is a good thing. Yeah, I'm glad that.
(18:28):
I'm glad about that too, But it is kind of
like you did it when it was too late, like
everybody knows it as this now, and um, it was
sort of when all these other developments were happening. So
I am very glad it happened. Also, I've never heard
the word instructuress before. That was a new one for me.
(18:48):
But yeah, I wish It's so tragic that she died
so young, and she'd already done so much, so who
knows how much more she could have accomplished, and she
had such an impact. And yeah, it was a story
I had never heard of. I really didn't know much
about leprosy, to be honest, So I'm so again, I'm
(19:11):
so happy that you bought this to our attention. I'm
happy she's getting the recognition she could serve, the very
sad she didn't get it in her life earlier. There's
a lot like when you look at the context of
when this occurred, there's so many things to unpack, um
because even today we know that when it comes to women,
and especially Marsin's women, especially black women, and stem or
steam is rare still like to the fact that people
(19:34):
are still questioning, you know, women being doctors, a black
woman being a doctor, or you know, anything in the
science field, engineering field. So it's lovely to see that
she broke down these walls so early on. It's awful
to think that she didn't get that credit until what
late nineties slash early two thousand's and looking and finally
(19:55):
Hawaii like, yeah, she definitely did these things. But also
like we understand and it was in the late eight
hundred's early nineteen hundreds, had been in the process of
being colonized the entire time, and there was there was
battles happening for that land and that resources, even to
the point that today, hey, people don't recognize or I
don't even know the history of Hawaii, Like it took
(20:16):
me to the last five years I understand, Oh oh yeah,
they really were really were like colonized and taking advantage
of and still are to this day, kind of saying
with Puerto Rico. Whole different episode, but these conversations of
like how this laid out and then having this deep
history trying to unearthed and remember some of the amazing
things that did occur at the same time, as well
(20:38):
as the fact again yes, that she was a young
black woman coming into a field being an instructor, which
again amazes me and I was like, wow, I wonder
again like the battles that she had to go through. Again,
you had said that she came from a pretty well
to do. Does that's the word I want that re?
(20:59):
I'm like, how do I say this? Um? But still,
you know there were challenges, you know, there are so
many uphill battles for her and her family. UM. And
the fact that she was an instructor and was able
to instruct other people in this field is phenomenal. And
maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion in that I
really wish it didn't have to be a big deal.
(21:20):
But of course, like I said, even today, is still
kind of a big deal. Like seeking people who are
able to uh continue in this field and to thrive
in this field. It's difficult because of all the obstacles
that are placed in front of a marginalized people in general.
So her stories beyond amazing. And even if she hadn't
done this method, which she did, which is an amazing
(21:41):
feat and she should be credited for that work, the
things that she had already done is an accomplishment in itself.
Again and for me as a person who has no
understanding of science hardly at all. And then like the
things I know of leprosy comes from like biblical teachings,
which pretty much submit unclean. That's what we know. That
(22:02):
that's a lot of people's experience, Santhem. I'm smart, it's fine, um,
But like all of these things come into play that
you're like, wow, this this information, this story, there's so
many folds to this that in her young life there again,
as you said, there's so many first that she should
have been accredited with that we should be talking about.
And how amazing this individual and I hope her support system.
(22:25):
So it seems we're able to get her to this place,
for her to work and fight for this place again
kind of diminished by the fact that people try to
take credit for her work. Of course, um, but at
least we are finally hearing about it. Like, there's so
many things to this, and I'm like fascinating, really want
to dig deep into, like who was this woman? And
how did she get there? Down? Now my phone down,
(22:53):
there's just it's just my my scattered mind to thinking
about all the processes of like how, wow, where does
she come from? How to this go? Why haven't we
talked about this more? Why aren't we talking about this more? Again?
I would have had no idea had you not brought
this to us, Like this woman would not have been
familiar to me at all. And it's one of those
things where you wonder if she would she have even
(23:16):
ended up doing this work if she didn't end up
in Hawaii serendipitously. It's like, of course, it was for
an unfortunate reason that she did end up going to
Hawaii for the illness um and her family, but because
she ended up there, she ended up there in proximity
to a challenge that was happening on the island at
(23:37):
the time, which is that these people were in isolation
and she was there to help come up with treatment
for them. So it's one of those things where it's like,
clearly she ended up there for a reason. She was
able to help in the work that she was doing
there in the short amount of time that she did
have on this earth. Yeah. Um. And sometimes with these
(24:04):
I get a little, you know, almost scared of like
what if what if this guy had never said she
didn't do this and people don't do the research and
then they don't know. But I'm always hopeful when you
come on you because you're like, no, people are doing
this research. The people won't be forgotten. Um, So thank you,
thank you, thank you for for bringing these people to
us and these amazing stories to us. Yeah, I'm happy
(24:25):
to thank you, like thank goodness for all these people
who are doing these things right. Yes, yes, honestly, so much.
There are so many moments when you talk about this
one person discovered this one name, and then they went
down this rabbit hole and discovered this whole new aspect
of this that I'm like, oh my god. It literally
(24:46):
was like a detail that they got and they just like,
this looks important. Yeah. Yeah, you have to be committed
to the idea of something to believe in something that
maybe has never been come behind in certain ways before
the other people wouldn't may never think to work on.
So I think that's really admirable in some of these
people's stories too. So to those people who continue to
(25:07):
dig deep, thank you, and that includes you, Eves. Thank you.
And if people call you weird, it's okay. It's okay
because people probably will call you weird for doing some
of these things, but just know that greatness is in
the future for you. We would never because we really
really appreciate all of you. Yes, well, thanks as always
(25:30):
Eaves for coming on. Um. Where can the good listeners
find you? You can find me on many many other
episodes of stuff Mom Never told You doing, other female
firsts and history about other amazing women who had innovations,
breakthroughs and first You can also find me on a
line on Instagram at not Apologizing. You can also find
(25:53):
me on Twitter at Eaves Jeff Cote and if all
else fails, just go to Eves Jeff Cote dot com.
That's why I v s J E F F C
O A T dot com. Yes, yes, yes, sobat that
I were just talking about the stress of spelling things
on podcasts. I don't know why. It's I'm stressful. I'm like, nope,
I'm gonna do it because I'm gonna buss it up.
(26:14):
It's like a panic moment. It's interesting. Well, go and
check Eves out listeners. If you haven't already online uh.
If you want to contact us, you can our emails
stepping your mom Stuff at iHeart media dot com. You
can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or
on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks as
always to our super producer Christina, thank you. Thanks to
(26:35):
you for listening, and also Eves, thanks for being part
of this TikTok experiment. You may or may not see
it listeners, I don't know. And thanks to Joey who
is ahead of the whenever they start this. Thank you, yes,
thank You're sorry. Step I've Never Told You This production
of y Radio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio,
you can check out the high Radio app Apple podcast,
where you listen to your favorite shows
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