Publisher's Synopsis
Great women have appeared in each millenium, but until the end of the nineteenth century they were perhaps best known in the arts and in houses of royalty. With the century's turn, though, new voices began to be heard in intelligent, keenly sensitive protest. Medicine and the other sciences began to attract young graduates who were later to make illustrious contributions in research and practice. With considerable hardship, some of these perceptive, socially aware, fearless practitioners ventured into areas previously occupied only by men. Such a person was Alice Hamilton, MD. By joining together her laboratory skills with her ability to reach the hearts of oppressed peoples, Dr. Hamilton gave shape to the modern specialty of occupational medicine. As the first woman faculty member at the Harvard Medical School, her writings on lead toxicity and occupational vibration continue to be important landmarks in the field. Historian Barbara Sicherman wrote, "No one did more during the first half of the twentieth century to alert Americans to the danger of industrial diseases than Alice Hamilton." This statement remains uncontested. Her name will live on as the mother of occupational medicine in this country. "With the beginning of the Occupational Safety and Health Act coinciding with the end of this pioneer's life," Jean Spencer Felton writes in his new Foreword to this edition, "and with the gains made in occupational health over the past 25 years, we are, indeed, still gathering the rewards accruing from the work of this early explorer of the dangerous trades."
