Rebecca Lancefield Essay

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Rachel Craighill Lancefield Today March 3, 1981 we celebrate the life of a woman who made amazing strides in science, Rebecca Lancefield. Without her findings in the field of Microbiology the understanding of streptococci would not be what it is today. Rebecca survived by her husband Donald, daughter Jane, son-in-law George, and two grandsons Donald and James. She was the loving matriarch of the Lancefield family who was loved by many and will be missed by all. I. Who was Rachel Lancefield? A. Born on January 5, 1895, in Fort Wadsworth, New York, where her father, Colonel William E. Craighill was stationed as an office in the U.S. Army Engineer Corps. As a member of an Army family, she lived in many different communities during her early years. After graduating from Wellesley College, however, and spending one year teaching in a girl's school in Vermont, she returned to New York City. Except for a year's sojourn at the University of Oregon, she spent the remainder of her life there. II. Why did they head in this direction in science? A. Her first move toward a career in science apparently came at Wellesley. Stimulated by her roommate's course in zoology, she dropped her notion of majoring in French and English and concentrated her efforts on biology. By the time she graduated in 1916, she was eager to begin graduate training. III. What impact did it make on microbiology? A. Microbiologist in the 1900s- Studied Streptococcus and within a year of beginning research she and her master's had identified four distinct serological types as determined both by agglutination and mouse protection that served to classify 70 percent of the 125 strains studied. B. She later studied the relationship between streptococci and rheumatic fever. This was very important because the relationship of hemolytic streptococci to human disease was

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