Harriette Chick

She was born in London, England, on January 6, 1875 as the fifth child of six daughters and four sons of Samuel Chick and Emma Hooley, a Methodist family.{{cite encyclopedia|first=Neil|last=Morgan|title=Chick, Harriette|encyclopedia=Dictionary of Scientific Biography Supplement II|editor=Frederic L. Holmes|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|date=1990|volume=17|pages=165–166|isbn=0-684-19177-6}} Her father owned property and sold lace. The Chick children were brought up strictly with no frivolities and regular attendance at family prayers. All seven girls attended Notting Hill High School, a girls' school thought to be outstanding for its teaching in the sciences.{{cite book|last1=Creese|first1=Mary|title=Ladies in the Laboratory|date=1998|publisher=The Scarecrow Press|isbn=0-8108-3287-9|edition=1|location=Maryland|page=149}} While there, the principle encouraged the inclusion of science as part of the core education. Subsequently, six of the sisters, including Harriette, continued to study for university degrees. Another of them, Frances Wood, became a notable statistician.{{cite journal|last=Wood|first=Tim|date=October 2017|title=The remarkable life of Frances Wood|journal=Significance|volume=14|issue=5|pages=34–37|doi=10.1111/j.1740-9713.2017.01074.x|doi-access=free|url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10073898/3/Cole_Frances%20Wood%20and%20the%20Wood%20medal%20v2.pdf}} Harriette was enrolled at Bedford College{{cite book |last1=Rayner-Canham |first1=Marelene |last2=Rayner-Canham |first2=Geoffrey |title=Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneering British Women Chemists, 1880-1949 |date=2008 |publisher=Imperial College Press |location=London, UK |page=61 }} and then as a science student at University College London in 1894, and then proceeded to obtain her doctorate in bacteriology at the same university in 1904.{{Cite journal|last=Carpenter|first=Kenneth J.|date=2008-05-01|title=Harriette Chick and the Problem of Rickets|journal=The Journal of Nutrition|volume=138|issue=5|pages=827–832|doi=10.1093/jn/138.5.827|pmid=18424587|issn=0022-3166|doi-access=free}}

She died in Cambridge, England, in 1977, aged 102.

During the years 1898–1901, an award from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 enabled her to undertake research with Prof Max von Gruber in the Institute for Hygiene in Vienna and with Prof Rubert Boyce in University College, Liverpool.{{cite encyclopedia |first=Neil |last=Morgan |title=Chick, Harriette |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Scientific Biography Supplement II |editor=Frederic L. Holmes |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |date=1990 |volume=17 |pages=165–166 |isbn=0-684-19177-6}} In 1902, she was appointed as assistant to Dr AC Houston, Chief Bacteriologist to the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal.The Crusade Against Consumption. The Times, 13 January 1902 p6, London, England In 1903, she returned to work with Gruber after his move to Munich in 1902. In 1904, she was awarded a DSc from London University for her work on green algae in polluted waters.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Haines|first=Catharine|date=2001|title=Chick, Harriette|encyclopedia=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain|location=California|publisher=ABC-CLIO, Inc|pages=60–61|isbn=1-57607-090-5|url-access=registration}} In 1905, at the suggestion of Charles Scott Sherrington, she applied for the Jenner Memorial Research Studentship at the Lister Institute, which was the only medical research institute in Britain at the time and had been established in1891 as a private charity [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316622097838 .] Her application raised several objections as no woman had been bestowed the fellowship previously. And in 1905, Harriette became the first woman to obtain a position at the Lister Institute of Prevention Medicine. Her relationship with the Lister was long. Employed until 1945 with the institute, she was an honorary staff member thereafter for 25 years.{{cite book|title=Who Was Who 1996–2000 (Chick, Dame Harriette) |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U153163 |year=2001 |publisher=A & C Black, London|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U153163 |isbn=0-7136-5439-2}}

File:Hariette Chick in conservatory animal house at Roebuck House Wellcome L0017187.jpg

Chick and Lister Institute director Charles James Martin discovered that the process of protein denaturation was distinct from protein coagulation (or flocculation),{{cite journal|last=Chick|first=Harriette|author2=Martin, CJ|year=1910|title=On the "Heat" Coagulation of Proteins|journal=Journal of Physiology|volume=40|issue=5|pages=404–430|doi=10.1113/jphysiol.1910.sp001378|pmc=1533708|pmid=16993016}}
{{cite journal|last=Chick|first=Harriette|author2=Martin, CJ|year=1911|title=On the "Heat" Coagulation of Proteins; the Action of Hot Water upon Egg-albumen and the Influence of Acid and Salts upon Reaction Velocity|journal=Journal of Physiology|volume=43|issue=1|pages=1–27|doi=10.1113/jphysiol.1911.sp001456|pmc=1512746|pmid=16993081}}
{{cite journal|last=Chick|first=Harriette|author2=Martin, CJ|year=1912|title=On the "Heat" Coagulation of Proteins. III. The Influence of Alkali upon Reaction Velocity|journal=Journal of Physiology|volume=45|issue=1–2|pages=61–69|doi=10.1113/jphysiol.1912.sp001535|pmc=1512881|pmid=16993182}}
{{cite journal|last=Chick|first=Harriette|author2=Martin, CJ|year=1912|title=On the "Heat" Coagulation of Proteins. IV. The Conditions controlling the Agglutination of Proteins already acted upon by Hot Water|journal=Journal of Physiology|volume=45|issue=4|pages=261–95|doi=10.1113/jphysiol.1912.sp001551|pmc=1512885 |pmid=16993156}} beginning the modern understanding of protein folding. She is known for having formulated Chick's Law in 1908, giving the relationship between the kill efficiency of organisms and contact time with a disinfectant.[http://chlorine.americanchemistry.com/Science-Center/Classroom-Activities/Harriette-Chick-Reveals-the-Laws-of-Disinfection.html Chick's Law] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721214046/http://chlorine.americanchemistry.com/Science-Center/Classroom-Activities/Harriette-Chick-Reveals-the-Laws-of-Disinfection.html |date=21 July 2015 }}{{cite journal|pmc=2540130|title=Women Physiologists|year=1994|volume=308|issue=6937|last1=Thoresen|first1=M.|journal=BMJ: British Medical Journal|pages=1173–1174|doi=10.1136/bmj.308.6937.1173}} Chick's Law was later modified by H. E. Watson in 1908 to include the coefficient of specific lethality. The Chick-Watson Equation is still used. A new and, at the time, more realistic test for the effectiveness of disinfectants, the Chick-Martin test, was also devised and named for the two collaborators {{Crossreference|(see Phenol coefficient)}}.

In 1909, Chick was a cosignatory to a letter to The Times newspaper from a group of women graduates of the University of London calling for them to be allowed to vote for the Member of Parliament returned by their university.L. Garrett Anderson, M. D., B.S., Marian Busk, B. S., Hon. Treasurer., & E. Honor Bone, M. D., B.S Harriette Chick, D.Sc. Jessie W. Scott. M.A. Hon. Secretaries. (16 November 1909). Women Graduates and the Suffrage. The Times, p. 12. London, England. In 1913, she was one of the first three women to be admitted to the Biochemical Society following its renaming and change of policy on the admission of women.{{cite web |url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/chm/research_teaching/womenbiochemists/biochemicalsociety/ |title=Women in the Biochemical Society |publisher=Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick |date=10 Nov 2010 |access-date=14 July 2020}}

In 1915, she briefly went to the Lister Institute in Elstree to test and bottle tetanus antitoxin for the army{{cite encyclopedia |first1=H. M. |last1=Sinclair |first2=David F. |last2=Smith |title=Chick, Dame Harriette (1875–1977) |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2020 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30924}} and to develop the first disinfectants aimed at specific microorganisms.A history of the UK Bio Products Laboratory (1954-2014), online publication [https://www.scribd.com/doc/75974837/BPL-History, accessed 25 August 2019] She returned to the Chelsea building, however, to prepare agglutinating sera for the diagnosis of typhoid and related diseases in troops. Subsequently, however, she commenced studies on rectifying nutritional deficiencies in the wartime diets of both the native population and overseas forces. Initially, this involved surveys of the ability of various foodstuffs to counter scurvy and beriberi.{{Cite web |url=http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/vitamins-history.shtml |title=Vitamin Discussion |access-date=12 November 2010 }}{{dead link|date=September 2018|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} In 1919, together with Dr. Elsie Dalyell, she led a team, including Margaret Hume and Hannah Henderson Smith, from the Lister Institute and the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) to study the relation of nutrition to childhood bone disease in post-war Vienna. They discovered the nutritional factor causing rickets and proved that fat-soluble vitamins present in cod liver oil, or exposure to ultraviolet light, could cure and prevent rickets in children.{{Cite journal|last1=Dalyell|first1=Tam|date=28 July 1977|title=Westminster Scene: Inquiry on Engineers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-lLDsoEkKIC&q=harriet+chick&pg=PA250|journal=New Scientist|volume=75|pages=250|via=Google Books}}[http://joe.endocrinology-journals.org/cgi/reprint/154/3_Suppl/S3.pdf Dalyell and Chicks Research]{{Dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Chick was appointed Head of a new nutrition section at the Lister Institute and continued with her research on rickets and, additionally, pellagra. The department was relocated to the Cambridge house of the Lister director, CJ Martin, during the Second World War.

She served as secretary of the League of Nations health section committee on the physiological bases of nutrition from 1934 to 1937. In 1941, she was a founding member of the Nutrition Society, of which she served as president from 1956 to 1959. She was appointed CBE in 1932 and subsequently Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1949. In 1960, she received an honorary fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine.

In 1918, she was elected to the Physiological Society. She served as Secretary of the Accessory Food Factors Committee of the Medical Research Council from 1918 to 1945.

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Category:1875 births

Category:1977 deaths

Category:British women scientists

Category:British women centenarians

Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Category:People educated at Notting Hill & Ealing High School

Category:British nutritionists

Category:British biochemists

Category:Alumni of University College London

Category:Presidents of The Nutrition Society