Alice Evans (1881-1975) identified the cause of a previously mysterious illness, thereby relegating it to the pages of history books.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network, this is Encyclopedia Womannica and I’m Jenny Kaplan.
Today, we’re highlighting a STEMinist who identified the cause of a previously mysterious illness, thereby relegating it to the pages of history books. She did this despite the fact that her peers did not believe someone such as herself capable of such ingenuity. It’s thanks to this woman that the pasteurization of milk is a widely held norm. Let’s talk about Alice Evans.
Alice Evans was born on January 29, 1881, in Neath, Pennsylvania, a rural town in the northern part of the state.
In 1901, Alice graduated from the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute of Towanda. She couldn’t afford to continue her education, so she became a teacher. For four years, Alice taught elementary school children. Then her brother told her about a free two-year course for teachers at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture. Alice enrolled and liked her studies so much that, thanks to the help of a scholarship, she stayed on to get her Bachelor’s degree in agriculture. Alice specifically focused on bacteriology, the study of bacteria.
After graduating from Cornell, Alice continued her studies at the University of Wisconsin with the support of a scholarship never before granted to a woman. Alice received her master’s in science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1910.
Alice’s professors saw her potential and encouraged her to continue her education. Eventually, she would study for a doctorate, though she wouldn’t complete her PhD. In the meantime, Alice got a job at the University of Wisconsin as a bacteriologist. She worked on a team under Professor E.G. Hastings. The group was attempting to improve the taste of cheddar cheese.
While Alice physically worked at the university, her position was technically with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Dairy Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry. The Dairy Division building in D.C. was in the process of being built. In the meantime, its employees were stationed in the field. But after 3 years on her team at the University of Wisconsin, Alice moved to D.C.
It seems that when Alice arrived in D.C., the men in charge of her division were surprised by her gender. She was the only woman scientist in the whole department.
At the Dairy Division, Alice’s team was tasked with studying how bacteria enters dairy products. Alice was looking into the bacteria in cows’ milk, a line of investigation that would lead to her greatest achievement.
Alice found that there were similar kinds of bacteria causing illnesses in cows and goats. That first realization led to a major discovery: Alice found that humans could become ill from the milk of infected cows.The infected milk led to a disease called brucellosis. Those with the illness suffered from fever, shooting pains in the joints, and depression. It was widespread in the U.S., though often confused for other maladies.
In 1917, Alice announced her findings at the Society of American Bacteriologists. In 1918, her work was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
At first, Alice’s discovery was discounted. Many thought that if humans could be infected by infected cows, others, namely male scientists with doctorate degrees, would have already figured that out
Reactions to Alice’s findings were so negative that she actually came to doubt her own research.
With the approach of World War I, Alice turned her attention to the war effort. She took a job at the organization that would later become the National Institutes of Health and worked on improving treatment for meningitis, a deadly disease running rampant in the military.
Alice’s work during the war was interrupted, however, when she herself became ill. Doctors were baffled by her condition, which went undiagnosed for the next 30 years as Alice continued to suffer.
In the interim, Alice’s theories about milk-borne bacteria finally gained international recognition, and she was able to return to her work on the subject. In a strange twist of fate, it was the resumption of this work that led Alice to the conclusion that the mysterious illness she was suffering from was actually brucellosis. She made this realization after comparing her blood to the blood of an assistant she knew was suffering from the disease.
Alice wrote a paper on her theories for the 1923 World Dairy Congress, but was actually too sick with brucellosis to attend. Still, the world was now on board with the idea that milk does carry bacteria and can make the human body very sick.
With newfound acceptance came action: pasteurizing milk, treating it with heat to kill bacteria, became the norm and cases of brucellosis declined into obscurity.
Though her work hadn’t initially been given its proper due, Alice was eventually honored by the scientific community. She received honorary degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Wilson College, and the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. She was also elected president of the Society of American Bacteriologists, becoming the first woman to hold that position.
She served on a committee of the National Research Council and attended International Microbiology Congresses abroad. She received recognition from the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Alice’s study of disease didn’t end with her work on brucellosis, she later studied the bacteria that causes strep throat and scarlet fever.
In 1969, Alice moved into a retirement home. She lived there until September 5, 1975, when she died after having a stroke. She was 94 years old.
All month, we’re talking about STEMinists. For more on why we’re doing what we’re doing, check out our newsletter, Womannica Weekly. Follow Encyclopedia Womannica on facebook and instagram @encyclopediawomannica and you can find me at JennyMKaplan.
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