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THE ONLY WOMAN WHO HAS BEEN ADMITTED TO OUR NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

Photo by Dorie Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

DR. SABIN, SCIENTIST

Winner ot Pictorial Review s
Achievement Award toe ee

HROUGH its annual achievement award of $5,000,
given to the American woman who, by the decision
of its distinguished achievement award committee,
has made the most distinctive contribution to

American life, Pictorial Review now adds a scientist to the
growing roster of its Woman's Hall of Fame.

Dr. Florence Sabin, formerly professor of histology at
Johns Hopkins University, and now member of the Rocke-
feller Institute for Medical Research, and one of the great-
est living scientists, was chosen for the year 1928 because
of her many discoveries in that living world which dwells
unseen except by those few gifted and untiring men and
women who give their lives to delving into the mysteries
that lie beyond the microscope in the hope that they may
bring to light newer and better methods of easing old pains.

Dr. Sabin's many noteworthy contributions may sound
technical to minds unlearned in scientific vocabulary. I
can not, myself, aspire to interpreting them. But viewed
in the light of the best scientific minds, she has made a real
contribution to the kind of understanding of the disease
tuberculosis that must precede our getting the means for
its control.

Her work began close to thirty years ago, when, as an
undergraduate at Johns Hopkins, she made a model of
the brain-stem, which is to-day in use in medical colleges
the world over. She was the first scientist to make a com-
plete study of the development of the lymphatic system,
that network of tiny vessels which carry fluid back into
the blood-stream. By arduous and continuous research
she established the centers from which they start to grow.

Next she made a study of the origin of the blood-vessels

By GENEVIEVE PARKHURST

and the blood-cells. Applying new methods to the study
of living cells, she established the relation of the mono-
cyte, which is one of the white blood-cells, to the cell which
forms the tubercle. The tubercle is the lesion so character-
istic of tuberculosis as to have given the disease its name.
For this discovery she was chosen leader of the biological
group in a new joint endeavor to study tuberculosis.

The tubercle bacilli having been split by chemists into
proteins, sugars, and fats, Dr. Sabin's group has found
that the tubercle is produced by the fats, and specifically
by a new fatty acid. The purpose of such studies is to find
out how the body builds up resistance to tuberculosis, so
that we need not be dependent on the fong rest-cures.

Now, as I have said, only those who have gone deeply
into the nature of these things can understand the magni-
tude of Dr. Sabin’s achievement. It is enough to know that
she is acclaimed throughout the world of medical thought
as one of the great living scientists. Of her Dr. Simon
Flexner, director of the Rockefeller Institute, says, “J
suppose that Dr. Sabin is the most eminent of living wo-
men scientists. The knowledge she has derived from her
studies has led to better understanding of the anatomy,
physiology, and pathology of the body in health and in
disease, and has been not only of theoretical but of prac-
tical value.

“It is of the nature of conspicuous social service to have
added to the knowledge of our bodies, well and ill, and thus
to have helped make them better instruments for the ful-
filment.of the purposes of society as a whole.”

Dr. William Charles White, of Washington, D. C., adds
his praise: ‘A study of Dr. Sabin’s work shows the

greatness of her achievement and the character of her
mind. She has dealt with the primary and fundamental
problem of the cell—the unit of plant and animal life. All
through her investigations she has followed the cell, seek-
ing the secret of differentiations by newer and finer meth-
ods, both physical and chemical. Always through her work
runs the great strong, continuous cord of cell differentia-
tions. This is one of the great concepts of man, for ail life
begins as a single cell.

“] have known and followed Dr. Sabin’s work since her
student days, and have lately been more closely associated
with her in her tuberculosis studies. She is all in mind and
spirit and ideals that man or woman ever accomplishes.
She belongs to the great students of both sexes, for when
these have the brains and the will to work I see little
difference.”

But what, from the woman’s point of view, is impor-
tant, because of the dreams she dreams, and of the vision
she has of what the future may hold for her, is the fact
that Dr. Florence Rena Sabin is the first and, up to the
present time, the only woman ever to be admitted to the
sacrosanct halls of our National Academy of Science. For
what one can do another may aspire to without too much
fear of failure.

And it is this great woman's gift, her early and deter-
mined zeal to make it serve her purpose, which was the
purpose of making it serve the world; her fortitude in going
the long way a woman must go when she pioneers a trail,
breaking down barriers, scaling heights of prejudice and

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DR. SABIN, SCIENTIST

Continued from Page 2

wecedence which only a rare woman
vould have the courage to venture, that
nake her an outstanding figure in the
world of outstanding women.

To persuade Dr. Sabin to talk about
aerself, to get her to tell me what she has
jone, was like hunting for the proverbial
qeedle in a haystack when there was no
needle there. Injanswer to my questions
she invariably be an, ‘Well, we—.” It
was from those friends and colleagues
who had been associated with her through
many years that I gleaned a glimpse of
Dr. Florence Sabin the woman, who is
also Dr. Florence Sabin the scientist.
From them I learned, as I had expected
to learn, that she had come to greatness
only by fortitude, sacrifice, and conse-
cration.

BORN in Central City, Colo,, in 1871,

on both sides of her family Dr. Sabin
is of old American stock, her ancestors
having come from [Normandy and En-

Jand to Massachusetts in 1643. Her
‘ather wanted to be a doctor, but, mov-
ing to Colorado when the excitement over
the discovery of rich deposits of gold and
silver was at its height, he became a
mining superintendent instead.

In her first school-days Florence Sabin
gave evidences of an original turn of mind.

ot that she was precocious, but she was
always a good student and wanted to
find out things for herself. Graduating
from an academy in Vermont, she went
to Smith College, where she worked her
way in part by tutoring in mathematics.
In 1893 she received her degree as a
bachelor of science. It was her interest in
zoology while a student at Smith which
prompted ber ambition to become a
doctor.

In 1893 the Johns Hopkins Medical
School was opened. Heretofore neither
the university nor the hospital had ad-
mitted women as students. But when
funds were raised for the medical school
one of the largest contributors, Miss
Mary Garret, made the stipulation that
the medical school must be open alike to
men and women. Dr. Sabin was one of
its first women graduates.

The following year she was an intern
at the hospital. But during this time she
was restive. Her heart always was in her
ambition for original work—something
unattainable, because at that time the
doors of laboratories were closed against
women. But help was not far away. In
1902 the women of the Baltimore Asso-
ciation for the Promotion of University
Education for Women provided her with
an endowed fellowship in Johns Hopkins
Medical School, and the next year she
was appointed an assistant in anatomy.
Her career had well begun.

The late Dr. Franklin P. Mall, profes-
sor of anatomy at Johns Hopkins, had
noticed from her first year in the medical
school her gift for original observations.
He saw the assiduity with which this
quiet, unassuming girl went about her
work, never resting until a problem had
been mastered, and going ever farther
and farther into that world that can be
seen only through a lens, returning often
with new observations. It was at his
suggestion that she began her study of
the lymphatic system, discovering that
the lymphatics, instead of growing from
small openings in the tissue, in most
instances sprouted from the walls of the
veins,

It was for this work that she was
awarded the first prize offered for re-
search by a woman by the Naples Table
Association. This association, supported
by the women’s colleges and a few private
subscribers, was formed in recognition of
the signal service of the late Professor
Anton Dohrn, director of the Biological
Station at Naples, who was the first to
admit women to a laboratory for indepen-
dent research. This association, now
called the Association to Aid Scientific
Research by Women, still maintains a re-
search table in the Naples Laboratory;
and Dr. Sabin is one of its most ardent
members.

In 1913 Dr. Sabin was given leave of
absence from the Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity to study at the University of Leip-
zig, Later by working with living chick
embryos she was able actually to see the

birth of the first blood-vessels, to watch
the first beats of the heart, and to show
that the red corpuscles develop from the
walls of the veins. It was for this work
that in 1924 Dr. Sabin was made a mem-
ber of the National Academy of Science.

In 1925 Dr. Sabin was called to the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re-
search, again being a first, inasmuch as
she was the first woman ever to be ap-
pointed a full member of its staff. Her
department at the institute is engaged in
the study of tuberculosis and the diseases
of the blood.

Only by a complete devotion to her
work has Dr. Sabin come to her large
place in the world of science. Altho she
puts aside with a smile any hint that her
way was not always easy, those who have
fotlowed her career closely, as associates
and as friends, declare that being a wo-
man set many obstacles in her path.
Wherever she triumphed it was by harder
work and under greater difficulties than
men would have encountered in the same
circumstances. But she, herself, was
never concerned with gaining credit.

Her one desire was to make the best
contribution that she could toward eas-
ing humanity’s pain. And this she did at
real personal sacrifice. In her earlier days
she was poorly paid—for science even to-
day does not receive fair emolument in
comparison with the rewards accorded
other fields of work. With her undoubted
talent she could easily have gone into
private practise, where she could have
accumulated a more than comfortable
competence.

“T am sure,” said an old friend, “that
such a thing never entered her mind.
Her whole life was in her work and what
it might mean to the cause of women.
She is never too tired to help other wo-
men doctors who come to New York to
make their way. She gives of herself and
of her time and of her money, so that the
way shall be made easy for al! women who
wish to do worth-while work in a world
which is as yet not quite ready to receive
them on an equal footing with men.”

At present Dr. Sabin’s chief hobby is
the movement to bring the best of medi-
cal care within the reach of those millions
who, neither rich nor poor, can not afford
to pay the mounting costs of illness.
“The rich,’ Miss Sabin explained to me,
“can pay when they have to pay, The
poor receive free treatment from skilled
specialists and can go, when necessary,
to hospitals free of charge. But between
seventy-five and ninety per cent. of our
population, that which constitutes our
very backbone, find it difficult to be re-
lieved from the intolerable burden of
illness. As it is now, the rich are over-
charged to pay for the poor. This is not
fair, either. And so a group of women
physicians in New York City have formed
what is known as the Gotham Hospital
Plan, the idea of which is to endow the
patient instead of the hospital.

“We all know that when a hospital
receives an endowment, it does not go to
reduce the cost to the patient. It goes
to build new wings, to increase staffs, to
buy further equipment. The Gotham
Hospital, for which enough money has
been raised to purchase its site, will de-
crease the cost to the patient. To illus-
trate: It is now almost impossible for a
patient in a hospital to escape at less
than $100 a week, and this is a minimum
cost. The cheapest room is $60 a week,
and those who go in wards, where there
are two or three or four patients, must
pay at least $40. If a special nurse is
needed it adds $50 a week, plus the cost
of her board; if a day and night nurse, the
price is doubled.

“IN THE Gotham Hospital, if a patient

can pay only $3.50 a day, she will pay
that much, and the patient's endowment
fund will meet the deficit. As we increase
our scope we shall always keep intact the
fund for the endowing of the patient.
New buildings and equipment and larger
staffs will have to be secured from other
funds.”

One might think that a woman who
had given herself over so entirely to the
dificult and absorbing deepnesses of
science must in time come to lose touch
with the life around her, and particularly
PICTORIAL REVIEW January 1930

with all those things which go to make
up a woman’s world. With Dr. Sabin
this is not so. She has a real flair for
domesticity. In her simple apartment
she does her own cooking, and her talents
for it are chef-like in quality. When she
3s entertaining those who have been
taken into her life in close friendship,
she dispenses with her maid, and both
cooks and serves the delightful meal
which she sets before them.

As busy as she may be, she finds time
for keeping up with all the best that is
being written in fiction and biography.
She is interested in art, and has acquired
rare examples of Oriental art in porcelain
and print. Musically minded, only some
compelling duty keeps her away from the
Philharmonic concerts.

That women can and will, in numbers,
receive adequate opportunity and recog-
aition in scientific work as they have in
ather fields of endeavor, Dr. Sabin is
sure. ‘But,’ she added, ‘‘they must be
peepared to work hard for the work’s

sake, without thought of what it may
bring to them in the way of personal ac-
claim and emolument. While scientific
research is exciting it has its dull and
plodding moments. One may delve and
delve and analyze and analyze for months,
and even years, without seeing anything.
Then suddenly, through accumulative
observation, the idea comes!”

Dr. Sabin was persuaded to acknowl-
edge that often she worked long hours,
day in and day out, week after week.
“T did it because I wanted to, not be-
cause I had to. I loved it and still do
love it, That is what women must have
in addition to diligence—a real and ab-
sorbing devotion to their work. They
need now to have a bigger body of work
to show.

“L think, considering what they have
had to fight against, that women have
been wonderful. I see no end to their
development in science, as in the arts
and professions and in business, if they
have the will to work.”

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