“Open up the window, let some air into this room.”
Good classroom ventilation was important in 1916, just as it is now. This open-air school was on Moore St. in Richmond, Va.
Creative fundraising supported the schools. Prominent women of the city served as hostesses in the palm garden of the Jefferson Hotel for a series of “golf teas” where indoor golf contributed to the afternoon’s enjoyment. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 2, 1916)
Image courtesy The Valentine via the Social Welfare History Image Portal.
On February 25, 2019 The NJ Assembly unanimously voted in favor of designating an Official State Microbe, Streptomyces griseus. This brings NJ one step closer to being the second state in the US (and the world) to have a symbolic microbe.
This action sequence shows me (seated) casting the vote for Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (standing) in the Assembly Chamber. Wow, that was cool, and an honor! ASW Quijano was the principal sponsor in the Assembly. The vote was 76 to zero.
Strep griseus produces streptomycin, the first broad spectrum antibiotic and the first significant antibiotic found in America. It was discovered in 1943 in New Brunswick, NJ
We have been getting a lot of positive press and electronic media following the unanimous vote of the New Jersey Senate on July 27. It’s nice to see an article in an actual newspaper! This ran in the Sunday Asbury Park Press on page 2 on July 29, 2018.
BeforeRingo Starr was the drummer for The Beatles, he was Richard Starkey, a kid from Liverpool. Born in 1940, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1952 and was hospitalized for two years.
The only treatments available at the time were: bed rest (95% mortality); streptomycin monotherapy; combination therapy with streptomycin and para-aminosalicyclic acid; and triple therapy with streptomycin, para-aminosalicyclic acid, and isoniazid.
It’s reasonable to assume that streptomycin, the antibiotic produced by Streptomyces griseus (discovered in New Jersey), was an important part of Ringo’s survival. His career with The Beatles, and his contributions to rock n roll music, would not have been possible without Streptomyces griseus, The New Jersey State Microbe.
To close out #PrideMonth, we’re celebrating the work of Dr. Alan Hart: physician, radiologist, scientist, and writer. Dr. Hart is one of the first individuals to undergo a female to male transition, pioneering in every facet of his life.
After obtaining his medical degree @OHSU in 1917, Dr. Hart decided to undergo hormone therapy for female to male transition. While this change was one of the happiest choices he made, he faced difficulties in maintaining a job due to his transition.
Dr. Hart continued to pursue medicine and focused on tackling one of the deadliest diseases at the time, tuberculosis (TB). Dr. Hart became interested in using X-rays as a way to detect TB and created TB screening clinics which helped detect and treat patients.
To address the growing spread of TB, Dr. Hart wrote medical articles on TB detection. He also promoted awareness of TB through #scicomm pop press articles targeting the public. Thank you Dr. Hart for your dedication and remarkable work! . . . . #pride #pride2021 #LGBTQinSTEM #LGBTQ #trans #QueerInSTEM #tuberculosis #xrays #AlanHart #jkxcomics https://www.instagram.com/p/CQxIYOCjz7E/?utm_medium=tumblr
Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) was a violin virtuoso so astonishingly talented it was rumored that he had sold his soul to the Devil for his crazy skills. Like Dunbar, Chopin, Kafka, Keats and Robert Louis Stevenson, Paganini also died from TB (tuberculosis). Skag is an old nickname for heroin. On a personal note, I mention cirrhosis (a disease of the liver from chronic alcoholism) because I am a life-long alcoholic who would be dead right now if it weren’t for AA (this February 18 will mark four whole years of sobriety for me). While my doctor insists it was not Covid and just borin’ ol’ pneumonia, last year I was bed-ridden for months due to a painful, horrible cough that wouldn’t go away. With the coming of winter I can feel, once again, something in my lungs.
One of the best thing that ever exist is friendship. I don’t know how this world will operate without kindness and love from someone you’re not intimately attracted with but unconditionally in love. Things might have been different but it’s not that you can predicts things. Destiny is still the ruler. I love how it always portray that scientists do not believe in God because that’s the beauty of diversity in cultures and belief, the beauty of respect and acceptance and the beauty of living in this world. Ramanujan must have been given a talent and intelligence that anyone could think impossible but because he believed on what he’s believing, he pursued his own dreams and did whatever it takes to share his part. Mr. Hardy and Littlewood are our great friends who just made me cry, made number 1729 meaningful than I could ever imagined. The wife and the mother who patiently waited for him. This film, though didn’t cater how every equations went. I just want to say that it is for the good of all, jk. Because even if they’ll tell it to us we won’t understand haha. Math complicate matters but it’s helpful to those who want to learn.
Bodies found in a 200 year-old Hungarian crypt have revealed the secrets of how tuberculosis (TB) took hold in 18th century Europe, according to a research team led by the University of Warwick.
A new study published in Nature Communications details how samples taken from naturally mummified bodies found in an 18th century crypt in the Dominican church of Vác in Hungary have yielded 14 tuberculosis genomes, suggesting that mixed infections were common when TB was at peak prevalence in Europe.
The research team included collaborators from the Universities of Warwick and Birmingham, University College London, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest. Read more.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries there was a widespread belief in vampires throughout New England. The vampiric condition became associated with the deadly Tuberculosis, a disease misunderstood at the time and therefore the cause of much superstition.
It was believed to cause nightly visitations from previously deceased victims, as well as bringing general sickness and multiple deaths to the family. As a result, there are various accounts of families having their deceased disinterred for the purpose of removing their hearts and bringing to an end their reign of terror, and the most famous of these cases is that of Mercy Brown.
There had been numerous deaths as a result of TB within the Brown family. Mercy’s mother and sister had died within a few years of one another, then, in 1892, Mercy herself succumbed to the illness.
Mercy’s brother Edwin was also ill and, in accordance with the aforementioned folklore, Mercy’s father was persuaded to exhume the bodies of his dead relatives in an attempt to cure his son. The mother and sister’s body were found to have undergone significant decomposition, however, Mercy’s body remained relatively unchanged*: a clear sign that she was undead and the agent of Edwin’s condition.
As a result, her heart was removed, burnt, mixed with water and fed to Edwin. He died two months later.
