Hansen’s disease, , is treatable today – and that’s partly thanks to a curious tree and the work of a pioneering young scientist in the 1920s. Centuries prior to her discovery, sufferers had no remedy for leprosy’s debilitating symptoms or its social stigma.
Author
Mark M. Lambert
Assistant Professor of Behavioral Medicine, Medical Humanities, and Bioethics, Des Moines University
This young scientist, , laid fundamental groundwork for the first effective leprosy treatment globally. But her legacy still prompts conversations about the marginalization of women and people of color in science today.
As a , I’ve studied Ball’s contributions to medicine, and I’m pleased to see her receive increasing recognition for her work, especially on a .
Who was Alice Ball?
Alice Augusta Ball, born in Seattle, Washington, in 1892, became the to earn a master’s degree in science from the College of Hawaii in 1915, after completing her studies in pharmaceutical chemistry the year prior.
After she finished her master’s degree, the college hired her as a research chemist and instructor, and she became the first African American with that title in the chemistry department.
Impressed by her master’s thesis on the chemistry of , Dr. Harry Hollmann with the Leprosy Investigation Station of the U.S. Public Health Service in Hawaii recruited Ball. At the time, .
Doctors now understand that leprosy, also called Hansen’s disease, is minimally contagious. But in 1865, the fear and stigma associated with leprosy led authorities in Hawaii to implement a mandatory segregation policy, which ultimately isolated those with the disease on a . In 1910, .
This policy overwhelmingly affected Native Hawaiians, who accounted for .
The significance of chaulmoogra oil
Doctors had attempted to use nearly every remedy imaginable to treat leprosy, even experimenting with dangerous substances . But the lone consistently effective treatment was chaulmoogra oil.
Chaulmoogra oil is derived from the seeds of . Health practitioners had been using this oil for centuries as a treatment for various skin diseases. But there were limitations with the treatment, and it had only marginal effects on leprosy.
The oil is very thick and sticky, which makes it hard to rub into the skin. The drug is also notoriously bitter, and patients who ingested it would often start vomiting. Some physicians experimented with injections of the oil, but this .
The Ball Method
If researchers could harness chaulmoogra’s curative potential without the nasty side effects, the tree’s seeds could revolutionize leprosy treatment. So, Hollmann turned to Ball. , Hollmann documents how the 23-year-old Ball discovered how to chemically adapt chaulmoogra into an injection that had none of the side effects.
The Ball Method, as Hollmann called her discovery, transformed chaulmoogra oil into the most effective treatment for leprosy until the .
In 1920, the Ball Method successfully treated 78 patients in Honolulu. A year later, it treated 94 more, with the morale of all the patients drastically improved. For the first time, there was hope for a cure.
Tragically, Ball , as she passed away within a year at only 24, likely from exposure to in the lab.
Ball’s legacy, lost and found
Ball’s death meant she didn’t have the opportunity to publish her research. Arthur Dean, chair of the College of Hawaii’s chemistry department, took over the project.
Dean mass-produced the treatment and published a series of articles on chaulmoogra oil. He renamed Ball’s method the “Dean Method,” and .
Ball’s other colleagues did attempt to protect Ball’s legacy. A 1920 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association praises the Ball Method, while Hollmann clearly credits Ball .
Ball is described at length in a , of Current History, an academic publication on international affairs. That feature is excerpted in a of Carter G. Woodson’s “Negro History Bulletin,” referring to Ball’s achievement and untimely death.
, a well-regarded religious volunteer at the leprosy settlements on Molokai, further referenced Ball’s work in a for a popular audience.
Historians such as later prompted a modern reckoning with Ball’s poor treatment by Dean and others, ensuring that Ball received proper credit for her work. Following Wermager’s and others’ work, the University of Hawaii , affixed to the last remaining chaulmoogra tree on campus.
In 2019, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to the outside of its building. Ball’s story was even featured in a 2020 short film, “.”
The Ball Method represents both a scientific achievement and a history of marginalization. A young woman of color pioneered a medical treatment for a highly stigmatizing disease that disproportionately affected an already disenfranchised Indigenous population.
In 2022, then-Gov. David Ige declared Feb. 28 Alice Augusta Ball Day in Hawaii. It was only fitting that took place on the Mānoa campus in the shade of the chaulmoogra tree.
Mark M. Lambert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
