01-29 TABLE of CONTENTS:
Alice Catherine Evans, bacteriologist
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTE by
Voltaraine de Cleyre.
Alice Catherine Evans
She explained why they ignored her discovery thus:
"The Nineteenth Amendment
was not a part of the constitution of the United States when the controversy
began, and [men were] not accustomed to considering a scientific idea proposed
by a woman."
So Alice Evans, who had announced the cause
and proposed a simple remedy to prevent undulant fever in 1917, saw the
terrible disease ravage yet hundreds of thousands for more than a decade
in the United States because the scientific community failed to heed her.
After all, she had no degrees... and was a woman.
Under pressures from Europe that adopted pasteurization
of milk years before as a result of AE's studies, the U.S. scientific community
and the dairy industry finally began pasteurization 1928/30. After milk
was finally pasteurized (as beer and wine had been for 40 years), the terrible
disease was all but eliminated in the U.S.
During her original studies of Malta fever, her male
superiors ordered her to stop her line of research because she was claiming
the source of contamination was the cow itself. The scientific wisdom of
the day said the disease was caused by handlers after the milk was
drawn and she was just wasting everyone's time.
She continued, however, doing the necessary tests
secretly and on her own time. In the course of her investigations, she
became infected with the disease, variously called Bang's disease, Malta
fever, or undulant fever and suffered for the next two decades with it.
It is a recurring disease that never seems to leave the system. Millions
died or were severely incapacitated during the time of her first announcement
and the agreement of the medical community.
But thanks to Alice Evans who was born 01-29-1881,
they have tagged and tamed the disease.
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01-29 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
B. 01-29-1822, Adelaide Ristori, renowned Italian
tragedienne who won unanimous praise for her passionate acting style
in worldwide tours, including four tours of the U.S.
B. 01-29-1846 (or 02-10), Elisabeth von Schultz
von Ada‹ewska, Russian composer and pianist.
B. 01-29-1878, Mary Lee Jobe Akeley, American
explorer, author, and photographer. She explored the headwaters of
the Fraser River and in recognition for her work Canada named one of the
highest peaks in the Canadian rockies Mt. Jobe. Later she started an outdoor
camp for young women in Mystic, Connecticut that she maintained her entire
life.
MLJA photographed and
explored Africa with her husband 1924-26, staying on after his death to
map Kenya and create important photographic studies of African wildlife.
She headed her own expedition in 1935 and became a campaigner for the conservation
of African wildlife as well as the tribal ways. Her books celebrated the
uniqueness of Africa and the dangers facing it from plundering.
B. 01-29-1881, Alice Evans, bacteriologist,
who after discovering that infected cow not the handling of milk by humans
caused Bangs disease, campaigned for more than 20 years to get U.S. dairies
to pasteurize our milk. She was not taken seriously because she was a woman.
Europeans finally forced American pasteurization of milk.
B. 01-29-1890, Marguerite Canal, French composer,
won Grand Prix de Rome (1920) for the symphonic poem Don Juan, and wrote
more than 100 songs.
B. 01-29-1906, Gracie Allen.
It's said that in actual life Gracie shortened the light cords on the lamps
in her house to save electricity. She also put salt in the pepper shakers
so that if she ever got mixed up no harm would be done. A very funny lady.
Husband George acted as her straight man.
B. 01-29-1911, Bernice Marion Wilbur, Lt. Col.,
Chief nurse, North African Theatre, U.S.
Army Nurse Corps during WWII.
B. 01-29-1912, Martha Wright Griffiths, U.S.
Representative from Michigan, who led the fight to adopt the 1972 Equal
Rights Amendment in the House of Representatives.
B. 01-29-1924, Nancy Oestreich, anthropologist
noted for her studies of the Wisconsin Winnebago Indians.
Event 01-29-1926, Violette Neatly Anderson,
became the first black female lawyer to practice before the U.S. Supreme
Court.
B. 01-29-1937, JoAnn Akalaitus, American theater
director. Artistic director, New York Shakespeare Festival.
Event 01-29-1943, Ruth Cheney Streeter
became the first woman to reach the rank of Major with the U.S. Marines.
She became a lieutenant colonel in 1943 and a full colonel in 1944.
B. 01-29-1953, Teresa Teng, Chinese singing
superstar.
B. 01-29-1954, Oprah Winfrey, America's most
popular TV talk show host who garnered an Academy Award nomination
for her startlingly marvelous depiction in the movie The Color Purple
(1985).
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QUOTES DU JOUR
DE CLEYRE, VOLTARAINE:
"I never expect men
to GIVE us liberty. No, women, we are not WORTH it, until we TAKE it."
--
Voltaraine de Cleyre (1866-1912).
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