Alice Ball: Cure for Leprosy
Alice Ball was a young chemist at Kalihi Hospital in Hawaii who focused on Hansen’s disease, a.k.a. leprosy. Ball studied chemistry at the University of Washington, earning a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1912 and a second bachelor’s degree in the science of pharmacy two years later in 1914. Alongside her pharmacy instructor, Williams Dehn, she published a 10-page article, “Benzoylations in Ether Solution”, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Publishing an article in a respected scientific journal was an uncommon accomplishment for women – especially for Black women at this time.
After graduating, Ball was offered many scholarships. She received an offer from the University of California Berkeley, as well as the College of Hawaii (now the University of Hawaii), where she decided to study for a master’s degree in chemistry. Her research sought to find a cure for the disease by figuring out how to inject chaulmoogra oil directly into the bloodstream. Topical treatments worked but had side effects patients weren’t interested in. Sadly, Ball became sick and returned home, where she died in 1916. Arthur Dean took over her study, and Ball became a memory—until a medical journey now referred to the “Ball Method.” Her method was used for over two decades all over the world to cure the disease.