xt7dbr8mh558 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7dbr8mh558/data/mets.xml University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Kentucky University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies 1984 volumes. Call Number: LD2762.9 .K38c. Accession Number: 2018ua049 journals LD2762.9 .K38c English Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection University of Kentucky Odyssey Magazine Research -- Kentucky -- Periodicals Education -- Research -- Periodicals Research -- Kentucky Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research, Spring 1984 text images Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research, Spring 1984 1984 1984 2026 true xt7dbr8mh558 section xt7dbr8mh558  

 

  

Kinkcad Hall, University of
Kentucky (0057),
Lexington, Kentucky 40506

James Y. McDonald, Executive
Director

Wesley B. Leach, Ph.D., Associate
Executive Director

Beverly lsaacs, Staff Assistant

William D. Ehmann, Ph.D., Associate
Dean for Research

Barbara Coleman, Administrative
Assistant

Edward Churney, Manager

Harold Peach, Jr., Programmer
Trainee

Jeannie Taylor, Programmer Trainee

Susan Hodgetts Donohew, Manager/
Editor

Tawny R. Acker, Staff Writer

Anne M. Coke, Publications
Assistant/Staff Assistant

Carolyn Edwards, Student Intern
Barbara Richie, Student Intern

William F. Schweri, Head/Senior
Professional Associate

Judy Beck, Staff Assistant

Margot McCullers, Professional
Associate 1

Gerald Goldberger, Ph.D., Senior
Professional Associate

Lucie Nelson, Graduate Associate
Ada Sue Selwitz, Professional
Associate 111

 

Fred B. Mesler, Director

Penny Allen, Proposal Preparation
Specialist

Barbara S. Boucher, Proposal

Preparation Specialist
Wilma Pofahl, Staff Assistant

Jack Supplee, Director

Susan Aylward, Project Administrator
Deborah Davis, Project Administrator
George Dundon, Ir., Project
Administrator

Shawna O'Brien, Staff Assistant

Ted Waldo, Senior Project
Administrator

Kathy Wells, Staff Assistant

 

 Odyssey is a magazine published
twice yearly by the University of
Kentucky Research Foundation under
the auspices of the Vice Chancellor for
Research and the Dean of the
Graduate School. Each issue of
Odyssey describes only a few of the
many University of Kentucky research
projects underway in a variety of
areas.

Requests for permission to reprint
material and readers comments
regarding Odyssey are welcome and
should be sent to the Editor,
Publications Office, University of
Kentucky Research Foundation,
University of Kentucky, (0057),
Lexington, Kentucky 40506, Phone
606-257-8297.

Editor: Susan Hodgetts Donohew
Designer: Jim Foose

Writers: Tawny R. Acker, Maria
Braden, Carolyn Edwards, Michael I.
Kirkhorn

Publications Assistant: Anne M.
Coke

Student Interns: Carolyn Edwards,
Barbara Richie

Printing: U. of Ky. Printing Services

 

The N-Team

 

A Disease That Robs The Cradle

 

Diaries of Childbirth: What Mothers Thought

 

Behavior Patterns And The Heart
Portrait Of A Heart Attack Candidate

 

Values, Ethics, & Food

 

Breeding Better Plants Faster

 

90 Billion Tons 8: What Do You Get?

 

Activating A Tumor Killer

 

UK Abroad

 

Research Briefs
Sitting Safely
Markey Gift Ensures Cancer Center
TAPing Drunk Drivers

 

Directory
University Archives
Margaret I. King Library - North
University 0‘ Kentucky
Lexlngton, Kentucky 40506

 

  

 

The N -Team

 

The tower juts like a grain silo from
the corner of the University of
Kentucky Chemistry-Physics Building,
drawing scarcely a second glance from
passing students and faculty.

But inside the ”silo” is not grain, but
a 25-foot, 15—ton nuclear accelerator,
sheathed in a 17—ton blanket of 3/4
inch steel. It is the heart of UK's
nuclear science program.

The accelerator is an apparatus
which generates charged particles and
sends them zinging down controlled
pathways as a stream of high speed
projectiles. Since 1964, it has enabled
a group of UK scientists to focus on a
broad area of low energy research and
win international recognition.

UK/s nuclear science research began
more than 30 years ago, when two
physicists built a “homemade”
accelerator that attracted the attention
of scientists at Oak Ridge. The Oak
Ridge group had been asked by the
Atomic Energy Commission to
develop a means for powering
satellites, but they needed basic,
fundamental information which
wasn't available.

”Because the accelerator was here
and under construction, the Oak
Ridge scientists said, ’Well start this
activity in your lab.’ That was the real
beginning of nuclear physics at
Kentucky,’ said Dr. Marcus

By Maria Braden

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
    

f" r

'1‘
,1)“

McEllistrem, a nuclear physicist who
is the chief spokesman for what has
come to be called UK's “Nuclear
Group.”

“We began to develop a program of ,
measurements in the late 50's. Until
then we had been focusing on making
(the accelerator) work in a more or
less reliable fashion.” he said. The
program was led by Dr. Lewis
Cochran, later to become vice
president for academic affairs at the
University, and Dr. Bernard Kern.

By the 1960s there was considerable
interest in nuclear science nationally,
and in 1964, physicists at UK were
able to persuade the state and
university to purchase a modern
accelerator. McEllistrem dubs that
”the beginning of the modern era."

The half—million dollar apparatus
was three times as large as the
homemade one, which cost less than
$10,000, and higher in energy and in
intensity of particle investigation—
and much more reliable, McEllistrem
said. "It was much more elaborate for
doing sophisticated experiments."

A new facility was constructed at
the eastern edge of campus adjacent to
the president's house to contain the
equipment, making the total financial
commitment close to $1 million. The
facility has been upgraded over the
last 20 years as a result of continuing
grant support. It is now one of only
three or four operating facilities of its
kind in the world.

Dr. Fletcher Cabbard, chairman of
UK's Physics and Astronomy
Department, said the lab is ”one of the
best in the world doing low—energy
neutron physics." And he called the
Nuclear Group ”a unique combination
of people and facilities. The group is
exceptional . . In the interaction of
neutrons with nuclei and in the
detection of neutrons which are
produced in charged particle
reactions, the research is outstanding."

What makes UK so good?

For one thing, UK scientists defined
their mission early. Even in the 1960s,
UK's new accelerator was not the most
modern or the highest energy
apparatus that could be obtained.

”It was a good, solid, reliable

 

 machine with which one could do a
lot of good nuclear physics, but it
wasn't at the high energy frontier,”
McEllistrem said. “So we elected to
go in another direction~what became
called the challenge of precision and
accuracy. That became the hallmark
of our program.

”We elected to go with experiments
that were very different and required
very sophisticated detection methods
and apparati, he said. ”Other places
with higher energy machines could do
experiments involving what scientists
call ’skimming the cream’—to go in
and quickly pass on to other areas,
leaving to other scientists the task of
putting it all together.”

While there is merit to that,
McEllistrem said it isn't his taste or
style. “I wouldnt like to do that even
if I could,” he said. “I like to pick a
problem, study it as thoroughly as I
can, learn as much about it as I can
and finish it. It’s just a different
style.”

”Skimming the cream” tends to earn
scientists more visibility and
immediate recognition in the
international scientific community,
but McEllistrem said he doesn’t
mind~as long as UK's nuclear group
continues to be recognized for its
contributions to the big picture.

At the time that the decision was
made to go the “precision and
accuracy" route, the UK group was
young and lacking in experience. It
was unrealistic to go after a facility
that would be at the high-energy
frontier, so McEllistrem said the UK
group carved out a more conservative,
but no less important mission. The
fact that the Nuclear Group has
distinguished itself in low—energy
neutron physics has enhanced UK's
ability to recruit the best young
scientists in the field.

For example, last fall Dr. Michael
Kovash, a physicist with a degree
from Ohio State who spent the last
three years at MIT, joined the Nuclear
Group. McEllistrem said Kovash
would lead UK in a major new
direction of research.

Kovash is ”the first new permanent
person since I came 20 years ago,"
said another senior faculty member,
nuclear physicist Jesse Weil. “The
group has been that stable.

”We've been together a long time.
It's gotten to be something like a
family operation," Dr. Weil
continued. “We found ourselves

 

After the installation of the accelerator. the 24—foot high, 17—2071 tank, pictured here, was
put in place. It is normally filled with a mixture of 80"? nitrogen gas and 20“}, carbon
dioxide gas, to retard sparking.

personally compatible, and that has
enabled close professional ties.”

It is the Nuclear Group itself, as
much as the accelerator, that has
made the UK program as strong as it
15.

One of the chief advantages to
working in concert is flexibility,
McEllistrem said. ”It gives you the
clout to focus as much personnel and
resources as you need to solve a
problem."

 

   

The disadvantage is that the
flexibility is achieved at the sacrifice of
professional identity. McEllistrem
sees this as perhaps the biggest
problem of the Nuclear Group, but
said it has not been insurmountable.

”I think we work it out pretty well .

. Though we collaborate, each has
his own project . . and this is
recognized by the funding agencies,"
he said.

Weil put it a different way: ”One of
the things that has given us a strong
program is that there is a lot of
coherence along with diversity. A lot
of experiments are directed to different
ends, but touch each other in many
ways."

Although group research may be
atypical in the humanities, it is fairly
common in nuclear physics. UK’s
group, with seven scientists, is
unusually large. Besides McEllistrem,
Gabbard, Kern and Weil, who are
now the senior faculty members, and
Kovash, the newest arrival, there are
two other faculty members: Drs.
Robert Hershberger and Steven Yates.

The size of the nuclear science
program at UK is also one of its
strengths.

“No one person with one or two
graduate students can launch a
frontier experiment,” McEllistrem
said. ”You can do experiments that
are less interesting and less significant.

”You need a critical mass to mount
a viable and effective effort. It’s not
only growth that counts, but the rate
of growth,” he continued. ”If the rate

          

isn't high enough, it's not worth it.” If
too few people are working on a
project and have nothing to show
after three or four years, the program
will come apart, McEllistrem said.
That's why the size of UK’s group is
critical.

Gabbard cited another advantage to
working as a group: the fact that
members can reinforce each other’s
ideas and discuss things. He said
inevitably there are personality clashes
in any group, but that they have not
been serious at UK. ”The people
involved have made contributions in
their own style," he said. “It’s kind of
like putting on a play—you need
various strengths, but all are seldom
in a single person. You need people
with different talents; that’s what we
have had in our Nuclear Group.”

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Another advantage the group has
enjoyed is that different aspects of
research have been funded over an
extended period, bringing continuity
and strength to the program.

Funding was a problem in the early
days, Cabbard said, but since the mid—
19605, nuclear science research at UK
has been continually funded by the
National Science Foundation and
others. ”Now,” he said, “people all
over the world know about our
work."

Just what is this work?

The group is trying to describe and
explain mechanisms that bind nuclear
systems together, which allow nuclei
to be behave like a cohesive fluid or,
alternatively, like a collection of
individual particles, McEllistrem said.

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Initial architect plans Show the layout for the Van de GraafAccelerator Laboratory including the target room, scattering pit, gas
storage tank and the pressure tank, The two exits penciled in were incorporated in the final design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
 

 

 

 

 

Scientists use nuclear reactions to
probe the structure of nuclei. Part of
the group's work is pure research and
part is the production of data which is
used in other research.

The usual method of probing the
structure of nuclei~which are the
cores or focal points of atoms—is with
electric particles. When they interact,
they react both electrically and via the
nuclear force. 80 scientists have the
difficult and sometimes impossible
task of untangling the effects of those
two interactions.

”‘In choosing to work with neutrons
we avoided the electrical interactions .
. . We gave up the usual methods of
working with and managing radiation.
We had to develop other methods,”
McEllistrem said. ”This is what put us
in a unique position, developing
specialized expertise to deal with
neutrons in a highly sophisticated and
accurate way.”

One way neutrons are used at UK is
to study the ways in which nuclei
absorb energy. That has been applied
in neutron radiography (metal
scanning) and in nuclear medicine.

In the latter area, the UK group
proved, for example, that it was
possible to produce a radioactive form
of iodine with a small accelerator. The
product is useful as a diagnostic tool
in finding lesions. However, while
UK scientists succeeded in making an
iodine with high purity, they couldn’t
do it routinely without a larger, more
powerful accelerator, so the project
was relatively short—lived.

Another project examines energy
absorption rates in material deposited
by neutronsia step toward
determining which materials will
absorb energy faster than others.
When energy is deposited, it can
transform materials, making steel
brittle, for example. McEllistrem said
data from the experiment could prove
useful in the development of fission
reactors.

In another experiment, Cabbard
and Hershberger are measuring cross
sections which help determine the
reaction mechanism and rates of
elements produced in stars. That data
may be relevant for estimating stellar
explosion rates, Gabbard said. That
sort of research may ultimately
answer questions about how the sun
works.

Hershberger and McEllistrem
worked together on an experiment in
cosmochronology, in which they
studied neutron reaction rates in stars

I

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

Aerial views of the Van ale Graaf construction plan shoze the upper and loteer portions of

the accelerator as well as their planned surroundings. The plans were drazen in the early
00's and the laboratory began operation during Nor?

which set a rhenium—osmium clock.
The process is used to date the age of
the galaxy, and in turn that of the
universe.

They concluded that the galaxy is
some 20 billion years old, much older
than other scientists working with
different methods had said. Since
publication of their findings last
December, McEllistrem said a
majority of nuclear physicists agree
with the UK findings.

Most of this work takes place in an
8,000 square foot complex of rooms

 

that includes a 600 square foot
neutron hall. Metal flooring covers a
five—foot deep concrete pit and
concrete block walls shield people
from secondary radiation. One room
houses two separate computer systems
for data acquisition and analysis.

The facility functions an average of
five days a week, 24 hours a day.
When the accelerator is running,
members of research teams are in the
lab around the clock, McEllistrem
said. It is not uncommon to find a
senior faculty member in the lab at

 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
   
 
 
  
   
   
  
  
     
     
     
      
        
    
    
     

    

 

 

midnight on a Saturday night, if an This is not, McEllistrem assures scientists from other Kentucky

experiment is in progress. Graduate one, because the University has not institutions and from facilities as far
students and postdoctoral fellows are been generous. It is simple away as New York are coming to UK
also in the laboratories at all hours of expediency. Experiments are to collaborate in experiments.
the days and nights. Opening new temporary set—ups, and scientists It gives credence to Fletcher
careers for developing young would rather get on with the Cabbard's contention that UK is
scientists, in fact, is one of the most experiment than waste time “known as one of the premier
important goals of the whole engineering them properly, laboratories in neutron physics on the
enterprise. McEllistrem said. low energy range.”

When things are up and running, As the labs reputation grows,

the hall is filled, literally, with a sea of
neutrons. Only a few neutrons are
doing something that scientists are
interested in. Events caused by the rest
must be identified and rejected. The
accelerator itself is not a source of
radiation, but neutron experiments
can sometimes produce charged
particles and gamma rays which make
the environment unsafe, McEllistrem
said.

The lab is cleared for such
experiments and scientists monitor
them by closed circuit television. ”We
want to minimize the dose (of
radiation)," he said, adding that a
two-year close in the lab is equal to, at
most, a third of a natural year's dose
for an average person.

Because the facility is used for such
a broad variety of experiments, some
of the equipment seems almost jerry—
built. While the accelerator is

 

    

Among the UK faculty involved in the nuclear program are from left to right: Marcus McEllistrem, Iesse Weil, Fletcher Cabbard,
Bernard Kern, Steven Yates, Michael Kovash, Robert Hershherger, Keh—Fie Liu, Marcele C02, and Alan MacKelIar.

unquestionably solid—a1132 tons of
it, including the mount—there are
cardboard cartons of parrafin placed
on or near the beam lines that
particles travel along, serving as
shields. An old styrofoam ice chest
substitutes for an expensive part on
another beam line.

 

iphoto by Bill Wells

 

 More than a quarter of all women
of child—bearing age have a disease
which will render nearly half of them
sterile.

The disease can appear as early as
the onset of puberty but most
frequently appears when a woman is
in her late 20’s. It is called
endometriosis.

Endometriosis is not life
threatening. However, as more
couples delay the start of their families
until their careers are well established,
many are discovering that the door to
having their own children has been
shut through the presence of the
disease.

A woman can easily be unaware of
having endometriosis since the
symptoms of the disease are often not
visible. This ”invisibility” adds to the

099
0:99 0‘09
We‘ll W

By Susan H. Donohew

insidiousness of the disease as early
detection could prevent sterility or
eliminate the need for corrective
surgery later.

The disease develops from a
malfunction of the menstrual cycle.
Normally the lining (endometrium) of
the uterine cavity is sloughed off
during the cycle and discharged from
the body through the vagina.
However with endometriosis, bits of
the endometrium move in a reverse
direction and are deposited in the

abdominal cavity. Here they attach
themselves to a variety of places such
as the bladder, rectum, abdominal
wall or even the lung. Once attached,
they grow in a fashion similar to the
normal endometrium of the uterus.
However, instead of exiting out of the
vagina at the time of menstruation,
endometrial sloughings are
redeposited into new areas of the
abdominal cavity.

Infertility is only one of the
symptoms of endometriosis, others are
intense pain during menstruation,
intercourse and defecation. Part of
the pain results from adhesions
between the endometrial implants and
different parts of the abdominal
cavity.

University of Kentucky
endocrinologist Michael Vernon, who

 

 

 3
i
s

   

—
A DISEASE TH T “@088 THE C'QAT)‘ E
continued

has worked in the area of uterine
physiology for the past decade,
recently began a series of studies on
endometriosis. Several things
intrigued him about the disease.

“The societal pressures for fertility
are enormous and infertility can have
a very disabling effect on a person’s
lifestyle," said Vernon. ”When I first
began studying the disease, it was

women underwent hysterectomies as a
result of endometriosis but the newer
philosophy tends toward the idea that
such radical surgery is no longer
appropriate. Today physicians can
treat the symptoms and often alleviate
the infertility through the use of
steroids.

Another aspect of Dr. Vernon's
research addresses the need to better
understand the disease through direct
observation, an option not possible in
humans. Under the National
Institutes of Health grant Drs. Vernon

In past years many young women underwent
hysterectomies as a result of endometriosis
but the newer philosophy tends toward the
idea that such radical surgery is no longer

appropriate.

uncommon to hear about it but the
public has become more informed and
women have become more aware of
their bodies. I was stunned by the
number of people who did, in fact,
have it."

It also appeared to him that it was a
problem that might have a solution.

Endometriosis is a disease unique to
humans, a factor which inhibits
research. Definitive diagnosis,
according to Vernon, is possible only
through direct observation using very
invasive procedures for the patient.
Part of Dr. Vernon's research should
make it simpler both for the patient
and physician in the diagnosis and
treatment.

Under sponsorship by the National
Institutes of Health, Vernon's studies
are the first to use uterine-specific
proteins secreted by endometrium as a
diagnostic tool for endometriosis. The
endometrium secretes several proteins
that are not normally found in the
abdominal cavity. His research
indicates that identification of these
endometrial secretions within the
peritoneal cavity would eliminate the
need for surgery to confirm the
presence of the disease.

There is no cure as yet for
endometriosis but “we can treat the
symptoms and sometimes alleviate
infertility,” said Vernon. ”With
conservative surgery, 40 to 80 percent
of the patients experiencing infertility
can conceive." In past years many

8

and Emery Wilson, professor of the
UK Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology, and Michael Rush,
assistant professor in the Department
of Anatomy, have been able to
induce endometriosis in rats, a
significant first in providing
researchers with a greatly increased
opportunity to observe and
manipulate the disease.

The procedure, developed by the
UK research team, surgically implants
small squares of the endometrium
from the uterus of the rat into the rat's
peritoneal cavity, creating the same
type’of conditions present in a patient
with endometriosis. This enables the
researchers to observe the
development of the disease and the
effect of different compounds on the
growth of the implants. One
observation that has become apparent
is that when a rat with endometriosis

becomes pregnant, the endometriotic
implants become smaller.

“We’re not sure why the implants
regress. However we are certain,
contrary to popular belief, that it is
not because of the presence of
progesterone, the major hormone of
pregnancy. It may be, instead, a
protein secreted by the embryo and
the isolation of this protein could
represent a potential cure for the
disease," Vernon said.

One of his theories on the disease is
that when the endometrium implants
itself outside the uterine cavity, the
endometrium is not exposed to the
same hormonal influences as it would
normally be and thus runs in a pattern
out of synch with the uterus. The
implications, said Vernon, “may be
the production of certain compounds
which interfere with fertility.”

The 35 year-old researcher is excited
about the progress he and his
colleagues have made so far in finding
a cure for endometriosis. Raised in
Lexington, Vernon graduated from the
University of Kentucky in Zoology
and then received a master’s from
Eastern Kentucky University in
Biology and his Ph.D. in Reproductive
Endocrinology from the University of
Florida. He also served as a
postdoctoral fellow in the
Endocrinology-Reproductive
Physiology Program at the Wisconsin
Regional Primate Research Center.

His current appointment at UK is as
an assistant professor of obstetrics and
gynecology and director of the
Radioimmunoassay Laboratory for
the Reproductive Endocrinology
Division at the University’s Chandler
Medical Center.

The prognosis for finding a cure for
endometriosis is excellent according to
Vernon, although his confidence is
tempered with the realization that
research funds are hard to get. But he
thinks it is the women with
endometriosis who will see that the
research funds are made available.
"They are finally coming out of the
closet and saying 'I have it and I want
help!’ "

 

 

  
 
 

 
   

Historians have documented the
ways in which childbirth has changed
over the last 150 years, from a home-
centered, social event to a medical
event that takes place principally in
hospitals.

But the history is based primarily
on books and prescriptive manuals
written for women by men. No one
has looked at childbirth from the
perspective of those most intimate
with it‘women themselves.

That's the approach University of
Kentucky historian Nancy Dye is
taking, and she has come up with
some original findings.

She found, for example, a nearly

 

—photo by Barbara Richie

DKMes

of Childbirth:
\Nhothkfihew

Thought

By Maria Braden

universal dread of childbirth, lasting
into the early 20th century. And she
found that the relationships of
mothers with their children were very
different than they are today.

With a Rockefeller Foundation
grant, Dye was able to spend time
during the last two years delving into
archives to read diaries, letters and
other personal writing dating back to
the 18th century. She hoped to

    
        
  

illuminate what has been, until now, a
very private and little-known side of
childbirth.

From the mid—19th century to the
early 20th century, childbirth was a
virtually universal experience in
America. Most women bore a child
every two years; at the turn of the
19th century, the average woman bore
eight children. At the turn of the 20th
century, the average woman bore
four. The frequency with which
women gave birth and the lack of
control they had over the decision to
have children is strikingly different
from the situation today.

 
 

 

     

D‘AQ ES L): i)" i @18 2M l COt'W‘UCd

One of the most profound shifts in
women's history occurred over the
course of the 19th century as the result
of the idea of family planning and the
introduction of effective means of
contraception, Dye said. Modern
American women generally look
forward to, and prepare for
childbirth. But in the 19th century,
and well into the 20th century,
women's diaries reveal a fear of pain
and death in childbirth.

”It is impossible to overestimate the
terror women associated with
childbirth,” Dye said.

Statements such as "My hour of
difficulty and danger is near . . . may I
be resigned to life or death" or ”My
blood chills" to think of an impending
birth were typically found in diaries of
the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
”And with good reason," commented
Dye. ”In the event of any kind of
complication, there was very little
anyone could do.”

Physicians didn't start playing a role

 

10

in childbirth until late in the 18th
century, Dye said. Before then, they
were called only in exceedingly
difficult births, usually to cut up a
baby in order to get it out.

It might be logical to assume that
once physicians entered the picture,
the experience of childbirth would
improve~both in terms of maternal
and infant mortality. But Dye and
others have found that was not the
case.

As part of her research, she studied
puerperal sepsis or “childbed fever,"
associated with maternal death in
childbirth. She found evidence that
cases of puerperal fever increased
throughout the 19th century.

“There doesn’t seem to be as much
(before) as when doctors started to
manage birth . . . simply because they
saw sick people, and had no
knowledge of how germs spread," Dye
said. In fact, the incidence of
puerperal fever was highest in the
hospitals—the 19th century lying-in
hospitals where poor women generally
gave birth. More than 90 percent
became infected, according to Dye.

 

From the diary of Elizabeth Cranch Norton of Weymouth, Massachusetts, 1799, thoughts
on her pregnancy. Source: The Massachusetts Historical Society.

 

”My guess is that the majority of
women throughout the 19th century
developed peripheral infections as a
result of childbirth, though it was not
always fatal," she said.

Her research into medical efforts to
understand, prevent and treat
puerperal fever is only a small part of
a larger focus on maternal and infant
mortality. American death rates have
always been higher than those of most
other western nations, and Dye wants v
to know why. In particular, she has
tried to find out how a woman's race
and economic class affected her
chances of dying in childbirth, and her
infant’s chances of survival.

One problem she encountered in her
research is that it is nearly impossible
to get reliable statistics of maternal
mortality in the period she is studying,
except in the case of some small
communities. There was no
widespread official record-keeping
until the late 19th century.

While she cannot paint a statistical
picture of maternal and infant
mortality, she has been able to explore
women’s perceptions of childbirth and
mortality.

She said the dread of childbirth and
dying seems larger than would be
accounted for by actual records of
maternal mortality. This fits in with
her belief that childbirth cannot be
understood solely as a medical event.

In her grant proposal to the
Rockefeller Foundation, Dye said that
by learning about how women
themselves viewed pregnancy and
birth, ”we can discover a great deal
about women's self-perceptions
throughout the past.

"I want to uncover as much as
possible about the changing attitudes
and expectations women have brought
to the lying-in chamber and the
delivery room. Quite simply, how
have women felt about giving birth
and becoming mothers?" '

Although other historians are also
asking these questions, Dye believes
she has come up with original findings 7
about the relationship of mothers and
babies.

Throughout the 19th century, at
least 40 percent of all deaths were of
infants under the age of one, largely
because of infant diseases and
problems of infant feeding.”I found
this fascinating, because even though
people knew that lots of babies died,
there was very little social concern
over infant mortality."

 

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The beginning or a new ionrnal by Sarah Ayer of Maine in 1815 stating what had happened since her last journal entry in [NI].
. Portland, Maine. Published by Lefaz‘or—Tower C0,, 1010.

Source Diary of Sarah Connell Ayer . ,

She examined records in a New
Yorlx City lying—in hospital and found
caretul documentation of maternal
death. But she said intant deaths were
not counted ”even at the turn of the
century.

Dye considers that evidence of
tatalism: ”It would lead you to
believe that people thought it was

beyond their control . . . that there
was nothing that they could do."

In the diaries, she was surprised to
find so little written about pregnancy
and childbirth, since they were such
central experiences in women's lives,
She found statements of dread and
apprehension when the birth was
imminent/ but little about how women

   
 
 
  
 
 

were thinking during