Madge Macklin

Madge Macklin (February 6, 1893 – March 4, 1962) was an American physician known for her work in the field of medical genetics, efforts to make genetics a part of medical curriculum,[1] and participation in the eugenics movement.

Madge Thurlow Macklin
(Pictured form left to right: Clarence Cook Little, Edgar Allen, Howard Boncroft Andervont, Madge Thurlow Macklin, Leiv Kreyberg, Gioacchino Failla, Henri Coutard)
BornFebruary 6, 1893 (1893-02-06)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedMarch 4, 1962 (1962-03-05)
OccupationPhysician

Early life and education

The fourth of five children born to Margaret De Grofft and William Harrison Thurlow, Madge Thurlow was born in 1893 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. William Thurlow was an engineer and his influence on Madge's academics showed throughout her persistent interest in sciences and maths. While Macklin was still in grade school, her family relocated to Baltimore, Maryland where she attended public schools and began studying calculus by age 12.[1] Before her senior year had ended, her family had decided to relocate back to her home town in Pennsylvania. Macklin, however wanted to graduate from the high school in which she was already enrolled. To do so, she moved in with one of her teachers; Nelly Logan.[1]

After graduating from Western High School, she attended Goucher College for her bachelor's degree (1914), Johns Hopkins University for her medical degree (1919) and then returned to Goucher College for her LL.D. (1938). While she was attending Goucher College, she had fellowships at Johns Hopkins University (1915-1915) and at American University (1916-1919).[2] While in school, Macklin was a part of a number of sororities that were academic based. She was a part of Sigma Xi (ΣΞ); which is a scientific research society, Sigma Delta Epsilon (ΣΔΕ); a scientific women's sorority, and Alpha Gamma Delta (ΑΓΔ); a fraternity that encourages academic achievement.

Family

Madge's husband, Charles Clifford Macklin, did not have the same upbringing as she did, he was raised on a farm outside of Toronto, Ontario and had to forfeit his education at the age 14 because his help was needed on his parents’ farm. However, in 1908 he began studying at the University of Toronto Medical School, which he graduated from in 1914.[3] Also in 1914, he wrote a description of the skull of a human fetus which Franklin P Mall was very impressed by. Based off this description, Mall invited Charles to Johns Hopkins University to work with him, which is where he met Madge.

When they met, Charles was a new instructor in the anatomy department and Madge was in her freshman year. Their relationship blossomed throughout Madge's time at the university. In her final year at Johns Hopkins University, Madge Thurlow married Charles Clifford Macklin on September 17th 1918.[2] Together, the couple had three daughters. The first of which was Carol Adair Macklin, born in October 1919, the second; Sylva Thurlow Macklin, born in February 1921, and the last was Margaret DeGrofft Macklin; named after Madge's mother, born in October 1927.[2]

Career and research

Early career

After graduating from Johns Hopkins University, Madge taught one semester at University of Pittsburgh Medical School as an instructor of gross anatomy.[4] Then, she was briefly an assistant in physiology at Johns Hopkins University from 1919 to 1921.[5] Later in 1921, Madge, Charles, and their two daughters moved to Canada, and Madge became a part-time instructor of histology and embryology at the University of Western Ontario. She remained in this position until 1930 when she became a part-time assistant professor.[5] Both Madge and Charles worked at the University of Western Ontario, Charles as a professor and Madge only in her part-time positions. She was placed in these part-time positions despite her being regarded as a pioneer of the genetics movement. While she was working there, she also researched medical genetics despite being underpaid and not being promoted to full-time professor.[4]

Medical genetics

During her time at the University of Western Ontario, while she was studying medical genetics, Madge Macklin advocated for introducing medical genetics into medical curriculum. She wanted genetics to be taught in terms of medical diseases not just in terms of genetic expression and insisted that it be taught by a medically trained individual rather than a geneticist.[6] Due to her advocacy for medical genetics, she was titled the "founding mother" of it.[7] In 1930, while she was still at the University of Western Ontario, Macklin was involved in founding the Canadian Eugenics Society whose committee she served on from 1932 to 1935 and was director of in 1935. Macklin was also a part of the American Society of Human Genetics, serving as its president in 1958.[8]

By the time she was fired from the University of Western Ontario in 1945, Macklin had made a name for herself in medical genetics. This is why shortly after leaving the University of Western Ontario, she received National Research Council funding to work at Ohio State University. This meant that Macklin left her husband and children behind in Ontario to pursue her research at Ohio State University. However, once she was in an environment that gave her adequate support and respect, Macklin began to conduct cancer research in terms of medical genetics which ended up being the main focus of her career.[6] Over the course of her career, she published over two hundred scientific papers on the topic of medical genetics.[4]

Eugenics

Although Macklin was a pioneer in the field of medical genetics, she was also involved in eugenics which is a belief that the human population can be improved by deterring people with undesirable traits from reproducing and encouraging those the favorable traits to reproduce.[9] By the early 1930s, Macklin had begun to focus her medical attention on hereditary diseases. Since few of these had therapies, often the only viable medical intervention was prevention; i.e., stopping "defective" people from reproducing. Medical genetics, in her mind, was thus tantamount to negative eugenics. She advocated eugenic approaches to many diseases, from cancer to schizophrenia.[1] Over her career, she published over 20 articles on the topic of eugenics, focused on the sterilization of individuals unfit to be parents of the next generation and individuals who had unfavorable attributes. One of her last major research efforts was a large study of the heritability of breast cancer, which still stands as a classic. [10]

Honors, awards, and memberships
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References
  1. "ISAR - Biography: Madge Thurlow Macklin". faculty.ferris.edu. Retrieved 2016-08-31.
  2. Madge Macklin Employment Record. Rep. no. 4459. Bureau of Public Relations, Ohio State University. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
  3. Staub, Norman. "Charles Clifford Macklin (1883-1959): Pioneer Canadian pulmonologist". Cardiovascular Research Institute and Department of Physiology.
  4. Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy (2000-01-01). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge. ISBN 9780415920384.
  5. McLaren, Angus (1990). Our Own Master Race: Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945. University of Toronto Press. p. 129.
  6. Oakes, Elizabeth H. (2007). Science Encyclopedia : Encyclopedia of World Scientists : 2-Volume Set (Revised Edition). New York: Facts On File. pp. 475–476.
  7. "Archives - Promises of Perfection". Retrieved 2016-09-27.
  8. Comfort, Nathaniel (2012). The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine. Yale University Press. pp. 86–88.
  9. "the definition of eugenics". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
  10. Macklin, Madge Thurlow (1959). "Comparison of the Number of Breast-Cancer Deaths Observed in Relatives of Breast-Cancer Patients, and the Number Expected on the Basis of Mortality Rates". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 22 (5): 927–51. doi:10.1093/jnci/22.5.927.
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