persuaded her to accept an appointment as assistant professor of industrial medicine. I quote here a wonderful passage from her autobiography. 2 "Harvard had not changed her attitude toward women students in any way, yet here she was putting a woman on the faculty. It seemed incredible at the time, but later on I came to understand it. The Medical School faculty, which was more liberal in this respect than the Corporation, planned to develop teaching of preventive medicine and public health more extensively than before. Industrial medicine had become a much more important branch during the war years, but it still had not attracted men, and I was really about the only candidate available. I was told the Corporation was far from enthusiastic over this breaking away from tradition, and that one member had sworn roundly over it. 'But then,' said my informant, you know, he always swears.' Another member had asked anxiously if I would insist on my right to use the Harvard Club, which at that time had no ladies' entrance, and did not admit even members' wives. One of my backers had promised them I never would nor would I demand my quota of football tickets, and of course I assured him that I should never think of doing either. Nor did I embarrass the faculty by marching in the Commence. ment procession and sitting on the platform, though each year I received a printed invitation to do so. At the bottom of the page would be the warning that 'under no circumstances may a woman sit on the platform,' which seemed a bit tactless, but I was sure it was not intentional." Dr. Alice then led an active life of teaching and investigation of industrial diseases with Harvard as her base until, as she remarks," "In 1953 Harvard made me a Professor Emeritus which is a great honor and pleasantly ignores my sex." During these years she was equally active in the social and political changes of her times, pleased to be named a radical on many occasions-once by Senator McCarthy. My association with Dr. Alice began in 1946 with a letter to me shortly after my first published report on beryllium poisoning, asking if I would join her for lunch to discuss a writing project. While we were perched on stools at a lunch counter, without ceremony she asked me to be the junior author of the new edition of her text, Industrial Toxicology. I, new at the field, protested vigorously while she serenely divided the assignments between us. Unable to persuade her of my inadequacy, I agreed to ask my superiors. They thought the job would be, as they put it, "good for me." I later discovered that Dr. Alice had placed me on the side of her deaf ear. And so began for me a most satisfying relation with a pioneer whose thought and actions I found so very congenial, and whose professional wisdom has encouraged me in the fashion of the ancient runner passing on the torch. Certain high points of this history of man-made disease will serve to introduce the chief subject matter of this lecture and illustrate several conclusions that may justifiably be drawn as necessary for the control of such disease. Hunter suggests that in ancient cultures and through the Dark Ages diseases of workers were neglected because of class distinctions, the health of slaves and uneducated workmen being of no concern to the rich and privileged. Alice Hamilton wrote that Plutarch, in the first century A.D., blamed a mine owner as unjust who used slaves, who were not also criminals, in mercury mines because of the risk of illness. In 1713 Ramazzini's famous book, De Morbis Artificum Diatriba, was published. It described the hazards of 52 occupants, among them wrestling, gravedigging and nursing. He is considered the father of occupational medicine (Fig. 1). Referring to the writings of Hippocrates, who described so well how to take a good medical history, Ramazzini suggested that one more question should be added to inquire about the sick man's occupation. The great social changes, arising from urbanization and industrialization brought great riches to a few and great misery to many. English writers of the early nineteenth century, among others Blake, Dickens and Lamb (Fig. 2). described the resulting social and economic problems. Thackrah," a physician of the mid-ninetenth century, wrote in 1831, "Evils are suffered to exist, even when the means of correction are known and easily applied. Thoughtlessness or apathy is the only obstacle to success." An observation unfortunately apt today. 2 Idem., p. 252. 3 Idem., footnote 1. P. 405. 4 Hunter. D. The Diseases of Occupations. 1046 pp. Boston: Little, Brown, 1955. 5 Ramazzini, B. Diseases of Workers: The Latin tert of De morbis artificum, 1713, revised with translations and notes by Wilmer Cave Wright. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1940. 549 pp. Thackrah, C. T. Quoted by Hunter, footnote 4. Pp. 116 and 117. |