American bacteriologist
Ida A. Bengtson
|
---|
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Ida_A._Bengston_%281981-1952%29_%2833597778752%29.jpg/220px-Ida_A._Bengston_%281981-1952%29_%2833597778752%29.jpg) |
Born
| 1881
(
1881
)
Nebraska
|
---|
Died
| 1952
(1952-00-00)
(aged 70?71)
|
---|
Alma mater
| University of Nebraska, University of Chicago
|
---|
Known for
| Classification of
Clostridium botulinum
, standards for gas gangrene toxins and anti-toxins
|
---|
Scientific career
|
Fields
| bacteriology
|
---|
Institutions
| United States Public Health Service
's Hygienic Laboratory
|
---|
|
Ida Albertina Bengtson
(1881?1952)
[1]
was an American
bacteriologist
, known for her work with
anaerobic organisms
. She became the first woman hired to work in the
United States Public Health Service
's Hygienic Laboratory, at the
National Institutes of Health
.
Life and education
[
edit
]
Ida Bengtson was born in
Harvard, Nebraska
on 17 January 1881. She attended the
University of Nebraska
graduating in 1903 with degrees in mathematics and languages.
[2]
[1]
Early career
[
edit
]
Following graduation, Bengtson began working at the
U.S. Geological Survey Library
. Finding the job to be of low interest to her she spoke to a close friend who encouraged her to go back to school.
[2]
In 1911, she entered the
University of Chicago
to study bacteriology and biochemistry, and earned her master's degree in 1913 and her PhD in 1919, both from the University of Chicago.
[1]
While studying, she also worked as a bacteriologist in the Chicago Department of Health in 1915. In 1916 she became the first woman hired to work in the
United States Public Health Service
's Hygienic Laboratory (later part of the
National Institutes of Health
).
[1]
[3]
Ida paved the way for the hiring of additional female scientists in the NIH and worked alongside other influential women such as
Alice Evans
, who went on to serve as the first woman president of the Society of American Bacteriologists.
[4]
Main Impacts
[
edit
]
Ida Bengston
Typhus
[
edit
]
Following her hiring at the NIH, Bengtson helped to discover that the 1917 tetanus outbreak running rampant across the US, could be traced back to a batch of contaminated vaccine scarifiers. After this finding, Bengtson began further researching the infectious diseases presenting themselves in various communities across the United States. This research included the production of a typhus vaccine, and a revolutionary test called the
complement fixation test
. This test led to findings in regards to detecting the differentiation of diseases including Rocky Mountain spotted Fever and Q fever.
[2]
Clostridium botulinum
[
edit
]
Bengtson's scientific achievement was also in the study of an organism called
Clostridium botulinum
, which causes a paralytic disease in chicken. This organism was first recognized and isolated in 1895 by
Emile van Ermengem
from home cured
ham
implicated in a
botulism
outbreak.
[5]
The isolate was originally named
Bacillus botulinus
, after the Latin word for sausage,
botulus
. ("Sausage poisoning" was a common problem in 18th- and 19th-century Germany, and was most likely caused by botulism.)
[6]
However, isolates from subsequent outbreaks were always found to be
anaerobic
spore formers, so Bengtson proposed that the organism be placed in the genus
Clostridium
as the genus
Bacillus
was restricted to
aerobic
spore-forming rods.
[7]
Trachoma
[
edit
]
Based on her work with the US Public Health Service (USPHS),
[8]
now the National Institutes of Health (NIH), she was moved to Rolla, Missouri, to begin to investigate the
trachoma
pandemic that was particularly widespread in the region of Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. She arrived in Rolla in 1924 and took her place in the biology lab at the
Missouri School of Mines
(MSM, now
Missouri S&T
), in the basement of Parker Hall.
[9]
Bengtson ran the trachoma hospital in Rolla, one of only 4 in the country at the time. It was in a small, wood-framed house on Elm Street, but it soon was too small to serve all the people who needed treatment. After Bengtson left Rolla in 1931, a new trachoma hospital was built in 1939, and today houses the Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research Center on S&T's campus.
[9]
During her short time in Rolla, Bengtson worked with animals and over 1500 human patients to isolate the bacteria causing the debilitating disease. She slowed the progression of the disease in over 1000 people, and, according to
The Kansas City Star
, Bengtson “made Rolla the chief American battle front in the war on” trachoma.
[10]
Toxins
[
edit
]
She is also known for preparing, during 1935?1936, the standard for gas gangrene toxins and anti-toxins.
[11]
One of Bengtson's other research interests was
typhus
, an exceedingly dangerous interest and she, like many other typhus researchers, eventually contracted the disease, although she recovered fully.
[11]
Her chapter on the family “Rickettsiaceae” appeared in the sixth edition of the influential
Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology
after her official retirement.
[1]
She was awarded the Typhus Medal of the American Typhus Commission in 1947.
[12]
Death
[
edit
]
Ida Albertina Bengstson had a career lasting 30 years. She retired in 1946. She published and contributed substantially to the field of bacteriology and public health. Ida Bengstson died in 1952.
[13]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Lindenmann, Jean (2005).
"Women scientists in typhus research during the first half of the twentieth century"
.
Gesnerus
.
62
(3?4). Basel: Swiss Society for the History of Medicine and Sciences: 257?272.
doi
:
10.1163/22977953-0620304005
.
PMID
16689082
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Early Women Scientists at NIH"
.
National Institute of Health
. NIH
. Retrieved
19 April
2019
.
- ^
Harden, Victoria A.
"WWI and the Ransdell Act of 1930"
.
A Short History of the National Institutes of Health
. Office Of History National Institutes Of Health, United States National Institutes of Health
. Retrieved
12 September
2011
.
- ^
Parascandola, John (1998).
"Alice Evans, An Early Woman Scientist at NIH"
.
Public Health Reports
.
113
(5). Public Health Service: 472?4.
PMC
1308419
.
PMID
9769773
.
- ^
E. van Ergmengem. 1897. Uber einen neuen anaerobic Bacillus and seine Beziehungen Zum Botulismus. Zentralbl. Hyg. Infektionskr. 26:1?8.
- ^
Frank J. Erbguth. Historical notes on botulism, Clostridium botulinum, botulinum toxin, and the idea of the therapeutic use of the toxin.
Movement Disorders
. Volume 19, Issue S8, pages S2-S6, March 2004.
- ^
I. A. Bengston. 1924. Studies on organisms concerned as causative factors in botulism. Hyg. Lab. Bull. 136:101
- ^
"Obituary"
.
Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences
.
43
(7): 238?9. 1953
. Retrieved
30 October
2019
.
- ^
a
b
"Selective Blindness: Ida Bengtson and the Treatment of Trachoma"
. 19 January 2019.
- ^
"The Kansas City Star". December 11, 1930.
- ^
a
b
"The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search"
.
news.google.com
. Retrieved
2018-03-26
.
- ^
"Rocky Mountain Laboratory Photographs - Dr. Ida A. Bengston"
.
nih.pastperfect-online.com
. Retrieved
2018-03-26
.
- ^
Lindenmann, Jean (2005).
"Women Scientists in Typhus Research During the First Half of the Twentieth Century"
.
Gesnerus
.
doi
:
10.24894/GESN-EN.2005.62013
.
S2CID
20430673
.