Margaret Georgina Todd (23 April 1859 – 3 September 1918)
was a Scottish doctor and writer. She coined the term ''
isotope
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers ( mass num ...
'' in 1913 in a suggestion to chemist
Frederick Soddy
Frederick Soddy FRS (2 September 1877 – 22 September 1956) was an English radiochemist who explained, with Ernest Rutherford, that radioactivity is due to the transmutation of elements, now known to involve nuclear reactions. He also prov ...
.
Early life and education
Todd was born in
Kilrenny
Kilrenny ( gd, Cill Reithnidh) is a village in Fife, Scotland. Part of the East Neuk, it lies immediately to the north of (but inland and separate from) Anstruther on the south Fife coast.
The first element of the name is from the Scottish G ...
,
Fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...
, Scotland, the daughter of James Cameron Todd and Jeannie McBain of
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
. She was educated in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Berlin.
Her brother was
James Cameron Todd a British
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
and schoolmaster, who founded
Michaelhouse
Michaelhouse is a full boarding senior school for boys founded in 1896. It is located in the Balgowan valley in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
History
''St. Michael's Diocesan College'' was founded in Pietermaritzburg in 1896 ...
school in South Africa.
A Glaswegian schoolteacher, in 1886, Todd became one of the first students at the
Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women
The Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women was founded by Sophia Jex-Blake in Edinburgh, Scotland, in October of 1886, with support from the National Association for Promoting the Medical Education of Women. Sophia Jex-Blake was appointed as bot ...
after hearing that the
Scottish Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons had opened their exams to women. She took eight years to complete the four-year course because, using the pseudonym Graham Travers, during her studies she wrote a novel, ''
Mona Maclean, Medical Student''.
This was described by ''
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pu ...
'' magazine as "a novel with a purpose – no recommendation for a novel, more especially when the purpose selected is that of demonstrating the indispensability of women-doctors". After graduating in 1894, she took her MD in Brussels.
Career
She was appointed Assistant Medical Officer at Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children but retired after five years.
Her first book was well received. She later published ''Fellow Travellers'' and ''Kirsty O' The Mill Toun'' in 1896, followed by ''Windyhaugh'' in 1898, always using her male pen name, although her real identity was known by then and mentioned in reviews of her books.
By 1906, even her publishers added "Margaret Todd, M.D." in parentheses after her pseudonym. In addition to six novels, she wrote short stories for magazines.
Isotopes
Todd was a family friend of chemist
Frederick Soddy
Frederick Soddy FRS (2 September 1877 – 22 September 1956) was an English radiochemist who explained, with Ernest Rutherford, that radioactivity is due to the transmutation of elements, now known to involve nuclear reactions. He also prov ...
, then a lecturer at the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
. In 1913, Soddy explained to her the research on
radioactivity for which he won the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
in 1921. He had shown that some radioactive elements have more than one atomic mass, although the chemical properties are identical, so that atoms of different masses occupy the ''same place'' in the
periodic table
The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the (chemical) elements, is a rows and columns arrangement of the chemical elements. It is widely used in chemistry, physics, and other sciences, and is generally seen as an icon of ch ...
. Todd suggested that such atoms be named ''isotopes'', Greek for ''at the same place''. This term was accepted and used by Soddy, and has become standard scientific nomenclature.
Personal life
Todd is assumed to have been in a romantic relationship with
Dr Sophia Jex-Blake, founder of Todd's university and place of employment.
On Jex-Blake's retirement in 1899, they moved to Windydene,
Mark Cross, where Todd wrote ''The Way of Escape'' (1902) and ''Growth'' (1906). After Jex-Blake's death, she wrote ''The Life of Dr Sophia Jex-Blake'' (1918) under her own name, describing the fight of women in the 19th century to enter the medical profession. ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
'' described it as "almost too laboriously minute for the general reader"
[ but it received praise in other publications.
]
Death and legacy
Todd died aged 59, three months after her book on Jex-Blake was published.
According to one source, she died by suicide; her ''Times
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems.
Time or times may also refer to:
Temporal measurement
* Time in physics, defined by its measurement
* Time standard, civil time speci ...
'' obituary states only that she died in a nursing home in London. After her death, a scholarship was created in her name at the LSMW. She left £3,000 in her will () to be used to promote the advancement of women in medicine.
Selected works
* Graham Travers. '' Mona Maclean, Medical Student'' (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1892).
* ''Fellow Travellers'' (1896)
* ''Kirsty O' The Mill Toun'' (1896)
* (1899)
* ''The Way of Escape'' (1902)
* ''Growth'' (1906)
''The Life of Sophia Jex-Blake''
(1918)
References
Attribution
* - brief biographical information for Margaret Todd
Further reading
*
External links
*
Classic Chemistry -- Elements and Atoms: Chapter 20 -- Isotopes: Soddy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Margaret
1859 births
1918 deaths
19th-century Scottish medical doctors
20th-century Scottish medical doctors
19th-century Scottish novelists
20th-century Scottish novelists
19th-century Scottish women writers
20th-century Scottish women writers
Scottish schoolteachers
Scottish medical writers
Women medical writers
Scottish women novelists
Scottish LGBT novelists
Victorian writers
Victorian women writers
Scottish women medical doctors
20th-century women physicians
19th-century women physicians
People from Fife
People from Rotherfield