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The Ball Method At the University of Hawaii, Ball researched the use of oil from the chaulmoogra tree in the treatment of leprosy. This life-threatening condition damages the skin and the nervous system. For centuries, chaulmoogra oil had been applied to skin to treat leprosy, but Ball developed a highly effective, INJECTABLE FORM OF THE OIL EXTRACT. This technique of relieving leprosy symptoms came to be known as the Ball Method.
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Historic graduation Alice Augusta Ball was born in Seattle, USA, in 1892. She was interested in science at high school and went on to study PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY at the University of Washington. In 1915, Ball became the first woman and the first African-American to graduate with a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii.
What came before… The first known account of leprosy is found in an ancient Egyptian papyrus, known as Ebers Papyrus, dating back to about 1550 bce.
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The Ebers Papyrus is one of the oldest records of Egyptian medicine.
In 1873, leprosy was proven to be contagious
when Norwegian doctor Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen used a microscope to identify the germ that causes leprosy.
