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Alice Augusta Ball

Introduction

Born: July 24, 1892 Died: December 31, 1916 Education: University of Hawaii, University of WashingtonDegree: Chemistry

Alice Ball was a black, female chemist who founded a new and more effective way to treat leprosy (Also known as Hansen's disease). She faced many challenges to get to the point she was before she died. Including race stigmas, gender stigmas, and stolen credit. Over eight-thousand people have her to thank for symptom relief as well as hospital discharges.

Biography

Alice Ball was born in Seattle, WA. She started her college career at the University of Washington, where she received her bachelor's in chemistry. She went to school in Hawaii. It was from this school she was the first African American to receive her Master's Degree in Chemistry. She was also the first women to receive her Master's degree. Not only did she make a break in leprosy treatment, but also breaking stigmas as well. Her life was very short lived, she also died in Seattle, WA at age 24 from an invasive illness. This invasive illness is thought to have been caused by an inhalation of chlorine gas ironically by teaching her class how to properly wear a gas mask (right after World War 1). Before her death she did find extraordinary information that radicalized the current treatment of leprosy. Why leprosy? There was an outbreak of this in Hawaii where she was attending school. Leprosy affected everyone around her and they have her to thank for her diligent work to better their quality of life. During her time here she was not given the credit that was well due to her.

Advancements in Science

As stated previously Ball helped advance the treatment of leprosy (The Ball Method). She did this by using Chaulmoogra tree oil. Granted this was already used in the treatment of leprosy, it had only previously been used as a topical (on the skin) agent. This is where her degree in chemistry came into play. She broke apart the fatty acid components in the oil, allowing her to formulate an injectable variation of the healing properties of the oil. Injecting it rather than putting it directly on the flesh that is irritated, allows for internal healing rather than healing the outer layer, and then having a reoccurrence because you only touched the surface. Leprosy patients were continuously being discharged from hospitals and able to more effectively manage their symptoms due to this discovery. Before her discovery, when it was still used at a topical treatment, it was extremely painful. Mostly because it was very sticky and difficult to apply. It was mostly used in Chinese and Indian medicine practices. Even when doctors tried to use this like an injection, again it was extremely painful because the consistency was not water-soluble, so it would leave blisters and raised the skin. The oil was a sticky consistency that would just sit under the skin, causing extreme discomfort. Ball found a way to isolate these properties from the oil's healing properties. She did this by "isolating ethyl ester compounds from the fatty acids of the chaulmoogra oil." Because she made the injection water-soluble, it was dissolvable in the bloodstream, allowing it to be used as an antibiotic, it would fight this infection, promoting the healing of the wounds caused by Hansen's disease. The oil itself does not come directly from the tree. It is found in the seeds of the tree.

Challenges She Faced

Going back to her accomplishments as an African American Woman, this was not, and still is not an easy thing to do. There was/are still many stigmas surrounding African American people's, especially women's abilities in working environments. On top of this, she passed away before any of her impacts could be noted. Because of this, Dr. Arthur Dean finished her findings, and published them, crediting NONE of it to Ball. So after he published "his" findings, the method of injecting the water-soluble form of the oil was nicknamed the "Dean Method." After this, the doctor that encouraged her research, to begin with, wrote an article, crediting Ball to his fullest extent. Recently it came known that we almost completely forgot a woman that changed the face of leprosy treatment, we credited her by re-naming it the "Ball Method." The University of Hawaii also came to this realization mid-2000 and mounted a plaque to their one and only chaulmoogra tree on campus. The governor of Hawaii, Mazie Hirono, announced that February 29th would be celebrated as Alice Ball Day. Note that February 29th is a leap year day, so it is celebrated every four years (as if she didn't get enough discredit). Although this still did not give her the recognition she most definitely deserves, her name and work were brought to light very recently, although she is gone, her impact is not.