Alice Catherine Evans

Alice Catherine Evans, about 1915

Alice Catherine Evans (born January 29, 1881 in Neath , Pennsylvania ; died September 5, 1975 in Alexandria , Virginia ) was an American microbiologist . She was a scientist at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) studying bacteriology in milk and cheese . She later showed that the bacteria Bacillus abortus caused brucellosis , also known as undulating fever or Malta fever, in cattle and humans.

life and work

Evans was born on a farm in Neath , Bradford County , Pennsylvania , to the daughter of William Howell Evans, a farmer and appraiser, and his wife, Anne B. Evans, a teacher. When Evans was five and six, she was homeschooled by her parents and attended a one-room school in Neath, where she received excellent grades. In 1886, Evans scarlet fever survived , as did her brother Morgan.

She attended the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute in Towanda, where she played on a women's basketball team and later became a teacher. In her memoir, she writes that she became a teacher because it was the only job open to women, but she found it boring. After four years of teaching, she took free courses offered to country teachers at Cornell University. After receiving a scholarship, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in bacteriology from Cornell University in 1909 and was the first woman to receive a bacteriology scholarship from the University of Wisconsin-Madison , where she earned her Masters of Science the following year.

Evans was offered a position in the Dairy Products Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Madison , Wisconsin . She accepted the offer and worked there for three years refining the process of making cheese and butter for improved taste and studying the causes of bacterial contamination in dairy products. She was the first scientist who had a permanent job as a bacteriologist at the USDA and as a civil servant she was legally insured.

She became interested in the disease brucellosis and its relationship with fresh, unpasteurized milk. Alice's research focused on the organism Bacillus abortus (now Brucella abortus and related Brucella species) which is known to cause miscarriages in animals. Evans learned that the bacteria thrives in infected cows as well as animals that appear healthy. The reports suggested that since the bacteria were found in cow's milk, a threat to human health was likely. Evans decided to investigate; she wondered if the disease in cows could be the cause of unacceptable fevers in humans. She reported her findings to the Society of American Bacteriologists in 1917 and published her work in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in 1918 . She warned that raw milk was drunk unpasteurized to protect people from various diseases and was met with skepticism, especially because she was a woman and did not have a doctor.

Alice C. Evans, 1945

However, in the 1920s, scientists around the world came up with the same results, and eventually Brucella infection was confirmed as the disease that caused what were known as undulating fever and Malta fever. Their results led to the regular pasteurization of milk in 1930 and as a result the incidence of brucellosis in the United States was significantly reduced.

Evans joined the United States Public Health Service in 1918 , where she contributed to the infectious diseases field and worked in the department's hygiene laboratories on the epidemic diseases meningitis and influenza . There she was infected with the then incurable undulating fever in 1922, which impaired her health for 20 years. She officially retired in 1945 but continued to work on her issues. After her retirement, she became a popular speaker, especially among women's groups. She lectured to women on career development and academic careers. In 1969 she donated a collection of her writings to the National Library of Medicine . She suffered a stroke at the age of 94 and died on September 5, 1975. Her gravestone reads: "The gentle hunter, having pursued and tamed her quarry, crossed over to a new home."

Awards and honors

• First woman to serve as President of the Society of American Bacteriologists , elected in 1928
• Honorary Degree in Medicine from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1934
• Honorary Doctorates from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and Wilson College, 1936
• Honorary President of the Inter-American Committee on Brucellosis, 1945–57
• Honorary membership of the American Society for Microbiology, 1975
• Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame , 1993

supporting documents

1. ^ ^{A b c} R. R. Colwell: Alice C. Evans: Breaking Barriers. . In: The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine . 72, No. 5, 1999, ISSN  0044-0086 , pp. 349-356. PMID 11049166 . PMC 2579030 (free full text).
2. ^ Evans, Alice Catherine (1881-1975), microbiologist | American National Biography . In: American National Biography . September. doi : 10.1093 / anb / 9780198606697.article.1300503 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Kim Zach: Hidden from History: The Lives of Eight American Women Scientists . Avisson Pr Inc, 2002.
4. ↑ Alice C. Evans: Memoirs . National Institutes of Health Office of History. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
5. ^ "Alice Evans" Education & Resources. National Women's History Museum, Dec. 2005. Web.
6. ^ Laura Lynn Windsor, Women in Medicine: An Encyclopedia ( en ). ABC-CLIO, 2002, ISBN 9781576073926 .
7. ↑ Parascandola, John L. "Alice Catherine Evans (1881-1975)" Journal of Public Health Policy. Vol. 22, No. 1 (2001), pp. 105-111. Palgrave Macmillan Journals
8. ↑ Meet Alice Catherine Evans ... She's Why Our Milk Is Safe To Drink (en-US) . In: Women You Should Know® , March 4, 2014. Retrieved October 6, 2018. 
9. ↑ Alice C. Evans Papers 1923-1975 . National Library of Medicine.
10. ^ Medicine: Bacteriologists . In: Time . January 9, 1928. Retrieved November 26, 2009.

Web links

Commons : Alice Catherine Evans  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Evans, Alice Catherine (1881-1975)
• Alice Catherine Evans , Distinguished Women of Past and Present
• Alice Evans , Women of the Hall, National Women's Hall of Fame