Clara Maass is not a...
Illustration
Clara Maass is not a name widely known, at least not as well known as her British counterpart, Florence Nightingale. Clara was an American who volunteered for army nursing in the Spanish-
American War. That war was marked by a great many deaths due, not to enemy bullets, but to disease, especially malaria and other tropical fevers. Once the fighting was over, many of the doctors who had served in the Caribbean turned their talents toward finding cures for these diseases. Clara Maass volunteered to assist in that research, in fact, volunteered to allow herself to be bitten by the mosquitoes which were suspected of transmitting yellow fever. She was immediately infected with a mild case of yellow fever, from which she recovered. However, she voluntarily allowed herself to be bitten again, and this second infection of the disease killed her in less than two weeks. She was the only American and the only woman to die in the quest for the vector for this disease. Let us, then, praise this pious woman.
-- Herrmann
American War. That war was marked by a great many deaths due, not to enemy bullets, but to disease, especially malaria and other tropical fevers. Once the fighting was over, many of the doctors who had served in the Caribbean turned their talents toward finding cures for these diseases. Clara Maass volunteered to assist in that research, in fact, volunteered to allow herself to be bitten by the mosquitoes which were suspected of transmitting yellow fever. She was immediately infected with a mild case of yellow fever, from which she recovered. However, she voluntarily allowed herself to be bitten again, and this second infection of the disease killed her in less than two weeks. She was the only American and the only woman to die in the quest for the vector for this disease. Let us, then, praise this pious woman.
-- Herrmann
