Ghost Map Links and Deaf Scientists
https://library.rit.edu/theghostmap/book/about-author.htmlThe link for resources related to Ghost Map is here: https://library.rit.edu/theghostmap/node
Reading Guide is here: https://library.rit.edu/theghostmap/book/reading-guide.html
The Ghost Map chronicles the development, spread and containment of the cholera epidemic in 1850’s London. Think about some current epidemics we are dealing with such as AIDS and the Avian bird flu.
The following info is from the Gallaudet Biography Database http://liblists.wrlc.org/deafbiog/home.htm and Harry Lang's book called Silence of the Spheres (3rd floor, Q175.5 .L34 1994). Explore some of the deaf bacteriologists who made significant discoveries in the field.
There are scientists that have been Nobel Prize winners. Charles Henri Nicolle, a French deaf scientist discovered that typhus which was an epidemic is caused by lice. He eventually won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1928 for this work (the first deaf person to win a Nobel Prize). He also made other important discoveries in the spread and control of epidemic diseases. References: Harry, Lang and Bonnie Meath-Lang. Deaf persons in the arts and sciences, p.276-278; Lang, Harry. Silence of the spheres, p.107-108.
Interestingly enough, there is a connection with cholera and a deaf scientist by the name of Clyde S. Jones. He was the first deaf person to earn two doctoral degrees (public health and MD). He became interested in experimental work on cholera and perfected a serum for diphtheria. crusaded against impure milk and helped raise cleanliness standards in the dairy industry. References: Lang, Harry. Silence of the Spheres, p.104.
Anthony A. Hajna was one of the nation’s authoritative scientists in enteric bacteriology, designing lab procedures for identifying epidemic type forms of bacteria. He spent many years researching techniques to accurately and quickly identify epidemic type bacteria especially thouse found in spoiled food and contaminated water. References: Lang, Harry and Bonnie Meath-Lang. Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences, p.166-168; Lang, Harry. Silence of the Spheres, p.105; American Annals of the Deaf, vol.85 no.2, March 1940, p.152; Digest of the Deaf, vol.1 no.3, Dec. 1938, p.20-22; Silent News, May 1992, p.21; Deaf American, June 1967, p.3-6.
Check out our library and web resources on epidemics. For example, there are books on epidemics such as When germs travel : six major epidemics that have invaded America since 1900 and the fears they have unleashed (3rd floor,RC111 .M226 2004), Global epidemics (3rd floor, RA649 .G56 2007), ebooks such as Epidemics and pandemics: their impacts on human history (http://albert.rit.edu/record=b1995338), Credo Reference to find encyclopedia articles, short biographical excerpts, Nobel Prize Winners in Science, and more. There are Nobel Prize websites such as http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1928/nicolle-bio.html,and Wikipedia articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Nicolle.
Think about what life was like in the 1850s in England and in America for deaf people.
Harry Lang informed me of a link about Nobel Prize Deaf Scientists - http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/WorldAroundYou/science5.html
He also informed me of this: The Edmund Booth book has info from his diary re: cholera during his six month journey on the Overland Trail in 1849 (2 pages). You can read those pages online here: http://ezproxy.rit.edu/login?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/rit/Doc?id=10081788&f00=te
The book is also available 4th floor, HV2534.B64 L35 2004
There is a video where Harry Lang discusses deaf scientists. Deaf scientists: Their invisible roles in history of ASL and Deaf community which can be found on the 4th floor, HV2373 .H37 1998.
Maureen Barry mentioned that there are short videos about The Ghost Map in Ideatools. Contact Maureen at mxbldc@rit.edu for more info.
Captioned video clips are now available at: https://library.rit.edu/theghostmap/book/about-author.html
There is an interesting interactive public health discovery game called "Outbreak at Watersedge," http://www.mclph.umn.edu/watersedge/
Another interesting microbiologist from the Gallaudet University Library Biography database http://liblists.wrlc.org/deafbiog/home.htm
NAME: Vernon, Edith Goldston
NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: American, Native American (Choctaw)
OCCUPATION: Factory worker, Printer, Research microbiologist, Biologist, Scientist
SUMMARY: Deaf at age 4 1/2 from scarlet fever and an operation for mastoid infection. Lost her mother as an infant; her father committed suicide when she was about 15. Lived on an Indian reservation, uneducated, with her father until age 10, when she went to the Oklahoma School for the Deaf. Upon graduation, attended Gallaudet College but dropped out after a year to marry Charles Hillior (also deaf). Worked in a rubber factory during WWII and put her husband through college on her earnings. However, he had an addictive personality and, after being brain-damaged from an opiate overdose, shot and killed himself. Meanwhile, Edith had attended a vocational school and learned printing, working in that field until Charles' death. Returned to Gallaudet College for another year and while there met and married her second husband, McCay Vernon (q.v.). Transferred to the University of Texas, then graduated Colorado College in 1958 as a laboratory technician. M.S. in microbiology from Loma Linda University and Medical College, 1965. Worked in original research on the genetics of bacteria in Chicago. Later, in Illiois, did nutrition research, and back at Loma Linda researched treatments for tuberculosis. Worked as a clinical microbiologist in CA and MD, becoming head of a hospital laboratory. Taught microbiology at Gallaudet College, 1979-1980, and had also taught in the Oklahoma and Arkansas schools for the deaf. Died from cancer.
SOURCE(S): Step Into the Circle, p.30-33.