Matilda Moldenhauer Brooks (1888–1981) was a
cellular biologist best known for her 1932 discovery that the staining compound
methylene blue
Methylthioninium chloride, commonly called methylene blue, is a salt used as a dye and as a medication. Methylene blue is a thiazine dye. As a medication, it is mainly used to treat methemoglobinemia by converting the ferric iron in hemoglobin ...
is an antidote to
carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...
and
cyanide poisoning
Cyanide poisoning is poisoning that results from exposure to any of a number of forms of cyanide. Early symptoms include headache, dizziness, fast heart rate, shortness of breath, and vomiting. This phase may then be followed by seizures, slow h ...
. She held a PhD in
zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
and spent her professional career working as a researcher at the
United States Public Health Service
The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant S ...
and the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
.
Education
Brooks earned her BS and MS at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...
, where she was a member of
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Alpha Theta (), also known simply as Theta, is an international women’s fraternity founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established for women. The main arch ...
, and her PhD in zoology from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1920.
Career
United States Public Health Service
Brooks conducted joint research projects with her husband, biologist Sumner Cushing Brooks. They worked together for the
United States Public Health Service
The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant S ...
from 1920 to 1927.
University of California, Berkeley
In 1927, Sumner Brooks was offered a faculty position in Zoology at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, to teach physicochemical biology, becoming the first person at Berkeley to teach classroom and lab courses in
experimental cell biology. When her husband had taken up his faculty post, Matilda had been barred from a paying job by Berkeley's anti-nepotism policy and allowed only a non-paying appointment. Thereafter she was described as being on the research staff at Berkeley, where she continued publishing her own papers and collaborating with her husband for 20 years.
Lawsuit for recovery of professional expenses
When Sumner Brooks died in 1948, Matilda was left with a lab and some small grants at Berkeley but no salary, the result of the university's anti-nepotism policy, which had barred her from a paying job when her husband had accepted his faculty post. Berkeley then offered Matilda a mere stipend of $500 a year to continue on.
By drawing on personal savings and investments, plus the small research grants, Brooks was able to continue her career on the meager stipend. In 1952 and 1953, she made trips to Europe furthering scientific aims, claiming expenses of $2,988 and $3,685, respectively, incurred during the travel. These deductions were denied on her Federal income tax by the Internal Revenue Service. Brooks then took the matter to Tax Court, but lost.
She appealed the decision with the Ninth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals. In ''Matilda M. Brooks v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue,'' she argued that even though she couldn't hope to earn a living from publishing scientific papers alone, she would profit professionally by gathering materials and conferring with peers to preserve her academic reputation during European travel. In 1959 Justice Stanley M. Barnes held in favor of Brooks and reversed the lower court decision, writing: "It is difficult in view of mankind’s almost universal drive for monetary reward alone to recognize that petitioner was required to spend many thousands of dollars to retain the position paying her but $500 per annum."
Activism
In 1933, Brooks published a rejoinder in ''
JAMA
''The Journal of the American Medical Association'' (''JAMA'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of biom ...
'' after a previous paper by a male physician reported successful treatments of cyanide poisoning with methylene blue omitted the fact that Brooks had published her discovery the year before.
In June 1936, Brooks wrote to the Board of Trustees of
Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States.
...
. "May I add my voice of protest to that of the others against the appointment of a man as head of Mt. Holyoke College? The education of women has progressed a long way from the time when they were allowed to sit out of sight behind curtains to listen to the words of wisdom which proceeded from the mouths of men instructors... It seems to me that in this modern age when there are so many able women in this country, educated and trained for leadership among not only women, but also men, that it is a very curious reactionary decision on the part of those in power, to revert to the age-old custom of considering a man as the only one able to head a group of women."
Personal life
Brooks met her husband, Sumner Cushing Brooks, in 1916 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she was working on her PhD in zoology at Harvard and he'd just finished his in botany. His father was the American
agricultural scientist
An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the U ...
William P. Brooks
William Penn Brooks (November 19, 1851 – March 8, 1938) was an American agricultural scientist, who worked as a oyatoi gaikokujin, foreign advisor in Meiji period Japan during the colonization project for Hokkaidō. He was the eighth president o ...
who served as the president of both
Hokkaido University
, or , is a Japanese national university in Sapporo, Hokkaido. It was the fifth Imperial University in Japan, which were established to be the nation's finest institutions of higher education or research. Hokkaido University is considered ...
and the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
.
Selected works
* 1944, with Sumner Cushing Brooks
''The permeability of living cells'' Ann Arbor, MI: J.W. Edwards, Incorporated. OCL
5136643
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Matilda Moldenhauer
1888 births
1981 deaths
American biologists
Harvard University alumni
20th-century biologists