E. Allen Driggers – författare

This book tells the story of how chemists, physicians, and surgeons attempted to end the problem of urinary stones. From the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, chemists wanted to understand why the body formed urinary, pancreatic, and other bodily stones. Chemical analysis was an exciting new means of understanding these stones and researchers hoped of possibly preventing their formation entirely. Physicians and surgeons also hoped that, with improved chemical analysis, they would eventually identify substances that would reduce the size of stones, leading to their easier removal from the body. Urinary stones and other stones of the body caused the boundaries of surgery, chemistry, and medicine to blur. The problem of the stone was transformational and spurred collaboration between chemistry and medicine. Some radical physicians in America and Britain combined this nascent medical advancement with older disciplines, like humoral theory. Chemists, surgeons, and physicians in Charleston, Philadelphia, and London focused on the stones of the body. Chemical societies and museums also involved themselves in the problem of the stone. Meanwhile, institutions in Charleston, Philadelphia, and London served as repositories of specimens for testing and study as previously disparate practitioners and disciplines worked toward the comprehensive knowledge that could, perhaps, end suffering from stones. The primary audience of this book is historically-minded chemists, surgeons, physicians, and museum professionals.

During the twentieth century, especially during World War II, female geologists were potrayed as having a glamourous and unique job.  Newspapers, the oil industry, and other publications published stories about the glamorous working geologist, comparing them to movie stars and scientists working on the important production of oil.  This book explores the image of the female geologist as it changed from the “accomplished” woman of the Victorian era to the professional, and glamourous geologists of World War II and beyond.  Women working in geology, especially petroleum geology, embraced the image and some participated in its promotion.  In those same newspaper articles, some geologists began to speak out and ultimately discuss some of the problems they experienced while working in the field and in industry.  This book discusses the role of working women geologists not only in the profession, but as a part of popular culture in the twentieth century.