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Ruth May Tunnicliff

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Ruth May Tunnicliff
An older white woman, in profile, with grey hair
Ruth May Tunnicliff, from the Smithsonian Institution Archives
Born(1876-05-01)May 1, 1876
Macomb, Illinois, US
DiedSeptember 22, 1946(1946-09-22) (aged 70)
Chicago, Illinois, US
Occupation(s)Physician, pathologist
RelativesHelen Tunnicliff Catterall (sister)
Sarah Bacon Tunnicliff (sister)
Ralph T. Catterall (nephew)

Ruth May Tunnicliff (May 1, 1876 – September 22, 1946) was an American physician, medical researcher, bacteriologist, and pathologist, based in Chicago. She developed a serum against measles, and did laboratory research for the United States Army during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Early life

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Ruth May Tunnicliff was born in Macomb, Illinois, the youngest child of judge Damon G. Tunnicliff and his second wife, Sarah Alice Bacon Tunnicliffe.[1] Her older sisters were legal historian Helen Tunnicliff Catterall[2] and Chicago clubwoman Sarah Bacon Tunnicliff. All three sisters graduated from Vassar College. Ruth Tunnicliff pursued further studies at the University of Chicago and at the Women's Medical College at Northwestern University, before earning her medical degree at Rush Medical College in 1903, in the first class of women graduates from that program.[3][4] She lived at Hull House for a stint as a young woman.[5]

Career

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Tunnicliff was a research bacteriologist at the John McCormick Memorial Institute for Infectious Diseases. She co-authored a book on gangrene, Noma: Gangrenous stomatitis, water cancer, scorbutic cancer, gangrena oris, gangrene of the mouth (1907).[6] She is best known for developing Tunnicliff's serum, which could prevent the measles if given soon after exposure.[1][3][7]

During World War I, she held the title "Contract Surgeon" with the United States Army,[8][9] and worked at Camp Pike in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Camp George Meade in Maryland, during the 1918 influenza pandemic.[10][11] Later in her career she worked on dental topics with Carolyn Hammond of the Chicago Dental Infirmary.[12][13][14] She served a term as president of the Chicago Society of Pathologists.[15]

Tunnicliff published her research on measles, rubella,[16] scarlet fever,[17] influenza,[18] and other topics in The Journal of the American Medical Association[19][20] The New England Journal of Medicine,[21] Experimental Biology and Medicine,[22] and The Journal of Infectious Diseases.[8][23]

Personal life

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Tunnicliff lived in Chicago with her sister Sarah and their mother. Their mother died in 1936.[24] Ruth Tunnicliff died in 1946, aged 70 years, in Chicago.[15] In 2015, she was one of the women honored by the McDonough County Women's Social Service Memorial, Facing the Storm, a bronze statue in Macomb, Illinois.[1][25]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Dr. Ruth Tunnicliff – Bacteriologist/Developed the First Inoculation for Measles". Macomb Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. April 25, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  2. ^ "Guide to the Helen Tunnicliff Catterall and Ralph C. H. Catterall Family Papers circa 1840s-1956". University of Chicago Library. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Egger, Rich (October 14, 2020). "Proposal to Honor Macomb Woman for Life-Saving Medical Research". TriStates Public Radio. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  4. ^ Mckeough, Kevin (March 27, 2017). "Women Physicians at Rush, 1900-1920". Rush InPerson. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  5. ^ Hallwas, John (August 20, 2011). "The Remarkable Tunnicliff sisters: Part 2 - Sarah and Ruth". The McDonough County Voice. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  6. ^ "Noma : gangrenous stomatitis, water cancer, scorbutic cancer, gangrena oris, gangrene of the mouth / George H. Weaver and Ruth Tunnicliff". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  7. ^ Science Service (June 1928). "Goat serum prevents measles in children's hospital". Journal of Chemical Education. 5 (6): 704. Bibcode:1928JChEd...5..704S. doi:10.1021/ed005p704. ISSN 0021-9584.
  8. ^ a b Tunnicliff, Ruth (January 1, 1919). "Agglutination in Measles". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 24 (1): 76–77. doi:10.1093/infdis/24.1.76. ISSN 0022-1899.
  9. ^ "American Women Physicians in World War: Contract Surgeons". American Medical Women's Association. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  10. ^ Morens, David M.; Taubenberger, Jeffery K. (November 2018). "The Mother of All Pandemics Is 100 Years Old (and Going Strong)!". American Journal of Public Health. 108 (11): 1449–1454. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304631. ISSN 0090-0036. PMC 6187799. PMID 30252528.
  11. ^ Morens, David M; Taubenberger, Jeffery K (July 2015). "A forgotten epidemic that changed medicine: measles in the US Army, 1917–18". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 15 (7): 852–861. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(15)00109-7. PMC 6617519. PMID 26070967.
  12. ^ Tunnicliff, Ruth; Fink, E. B.; Hammond, Carolyn (October 1, 1936). "Significance of Fusiform Bacilli and Spirilla in Gingival Tissue**From the John McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases and the Foundation for Dental Research of the Chicago College of Dental Surgery.Read before the Section on Histology, Physiology, Pathology, Bacteriology and Chemistry (Research) at the Seventy-Eighth Annual Session of the American Dental Association, San Francisco, Calif., July 14, 1936". The Journal of the American Dental Association. 23 (10): 1959–1965. doi:10.14219/jada.archive.1936.0273. ISSN 1048-6364.
  13. ^ Tunnicliff, Ruth; Hammond, Carolyn (December 1937). "Abscess Production by Fusiform Bacilli in Rabbits and Mice by the Use of Scillaren B or Mucin". Journal of Dental Research. 16 (6): 479–488. doi:10.1177/00220345370160060201. S2CID 72697926.
  14. ^ "Dentists to Hold Session in Hammond". The Times. October 7, 1936. p. 1. Retrieved January 24, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ a b "Dr. Ruth Tunnicliff". Chicago Tribune. September 23, 1946. p. 18. Retrieved January 24, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Tunnicliff, Ruth (July 13, 1918). "Observations on Throat Smears in Measles, Rubella (German Measles) and Scarlet Fever". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 71 (2): 104. doi:10.1001/jama.1918.02600280026006. ISSN 0098-7484.
  17. ^ Tunnicliff, Ruth (1936). "Opsonins for Diplococcus morbillorum and for Streptococcus scarlatinae in Convalescent Measles Serum, Convalescent Scarlet Fever Serum and Placental Extract". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 58 (1): 1–4. doi:10.1093/infdis/58.1.1. ISSN 0022-1899. JSTOR 30089032.
  18. ^ Tunnicliff, Ruth (May 1, 1920). "Observations on green producing cocci of influenza". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 26 (5): 405–417. doi:10.1093/infdis/26.5.405. ISSN 0022-1899.
  19. ^ Tunnicliff, Ruth (April 7, 1917). "The Cultivation of a Micrococcus from Blood in Pre-Eruptive and Eruptive Stages of Measles". Journal of the American Medical Association. LXVIII (14): 1028–1030. doi:10.1001/jama.1917.04270040016008. ISSN 0002-9955.
  20. ^ Tunnicliff, Ruth (May 4, 1929). "The Healthy Carrier in Scarlet Fever". Journal of the American Medical Association. 92 (18): 1498. doi:10.1001/jama.1929.02700440006004. ISSN 0002-9955.
  21. ^ TUNNICLIFF, RUTH; WHITE, BENJAMIN (August 18, 1927). "An Anti-Measles-Diplococcus Serum". The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. 197 (7): 272–273. doi:10.1056/NEJM192708181970708. ISSN 0096-6762.
  22. ^ Tunnicliff, R. (December 1, 1928). "Use of Paramecia for Studying Toxins and Antitoxins (Measles, Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria)". Experimental Biology and Medicine. 26 (3): 213–217. doi:10.3181/00379727-26-4224. ISSN 1535-3702. S2CID 84697281.
  23. ^ Tunnicliff, Ruth (September 1, 1929). "Dissociation of Diplococcus from Measles". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 45 (3): 235–243. doi:10.1093/infdis/45.3.235. ISSN 0022-1899.
  24. ^ "Mrs. Sarah Tunnicliff, Widow of Justice, Dies". Chicago Tribune. June 24, 1936. p. 25. Retrieved January 24, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ Renken, Leslie (September 19, 2015). "Macomb sculpture honors female activists". Journal Star. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
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