Gladys Dick

Gladys Rowena Henry Dick (December 1881 – August 21, 1963)

Gladys Rowena Henry Dick (December 1881 – August 21, 1963) was an American physician who co-developed a vaccine for scarlet fever with her husband, George F. Dick.^[1]

Life and career

Born in Pawnee City, Nebraska, she earned her Bachelor of Science from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1900. Her family objected to her going to medical school, but she eventually moved away and earned her M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1907. She then did postgraduate work at the University of Berlin. She moved to Chicago in 1911 and contracted scarlet fever while working at Children's Memorial Hospital. After recovering, she took a research position at University of Chicago. She and her future husband began investigating the causes of scarlet fever, and they were married in 1914. They began their research at Evanston Hospital, then moved to the John R. McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases.

In 1923 they isolated hemolytic streptococcus as the cause of scarlet fever, then developed the Dick Skin Test and developed toxin and antitoxin production methods, which were patented in 1924 and 1926. They were widely criticized for the patents, but they argued that the patents maintained quality control.^[2] They brought a successful suit against a manufacturer in 1930.

Though their vaccine was superseded by penicillin in the 1940's, their work was recognized for a Charles Mickle Fellowship Award from University of Toronto in 1926 and formal recognition by the University of Edinburgh in 1933. Dick went on to be active in polio research and was an advocate for adoption. Dick died of cerebral arteriosclerosis in Palo Alto, California.^[3]

References

1. ^ Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Joy Dorothy Harvey (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science. Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9780415920391
2. ^ Staff report (March 19, 1927). Dicks Patent Fever Cure; Chicago Doctors Act for Public, Not Profit, Statement Says. New York Times
3. ^ Staff report (August 23, 1963). Gladys Dick, scarlet fever expert. Chicago Tribune

Persondata
Name	Dick, Gladys
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Short description
Date of birth	1881
Place of birth
Date of death	August 21, 1963
Place of death