Ida Henrietta Hyde

Ida Henrietta Hyde
Born	September 8, 1857 Davenport, Iowa
Died	Berkeley, California
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Cornell University University of Heidelberg
Known for	Micro-electrode

Ida Henrietta Hyde (September 8, 1857 – August 22, 1945) was an American physiologist known for developing a micro-electrode powerful enough to stimulate tissue chemically or electronically, yet small enough to inject or remove tissue from a cell.

Childhood

Born in Davenport, Iowa, Ida was one of four children to Meyer and Babette Heidenheimer, German immigrants from Württemberg. The surname Hyde was taken after their arrival in the United States. Ida's father was a merchant that worked out of home and who disappeared on one of his trips, leaving Babette to care for the children. In order to keep the family afloat, they moved to Chicago, where Babette was able to start a prosperous business.

In 1871, the family home was destroyed in the Great Fire of Chicago, which destroyed the family business as well. Without any form of income, the children were forced into labor. Ida entered the work force at age 14 as a milliner's apprentice. Because of her age, older than that of her siblings, much of the burden of supporting the family fell on her. She brought in a large portion of the family income, and even paid for her only brother's education at the University of Illinois. Over time, she rose in her occupation to the job of saleslady. Her experience in the clothing store proved to be valuable later in life because of her ability to fashion her own clothing with minimal supplies.

Education

At the store where she worked, Hyde chanced upon an English version of Ansichten der Natur (View of Nature) by Alexander von Humboldt. It was from this work that her love of biology was born. In addition, it spurred her toward continuing her education, which she did by attending night classes at the Chicago Athenaeum during 1875–76 in spite of her parent's objections. Her further educational studies came to her while she was visiting her brother at his university and chanced upon meeting several women working in academia. She was able to pass her entrance exams for the College Preparatory School and later entered the same university as her brother.

Her study was cut short when her brother became sick in 1882 and she had to attend to him. She also used all of her savings for just one year of education. However, she passed the county teacher's exam and, three years later, the Chicago teacher's exams, and for the next six years she worked as a teacher of second- and third-graders. Her biological pursuits still were still expressed in her attempts to work nature studies into the public school system. She saved money to put towards her tuition, remaining focused on her goal of attaining a college degree.

In 1888 she was finally able to return to the collegiate scene at the age of 31. She enrolled at Cornell University and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in just three years. She was then offered a biology scholarship at Bryn Mawr College. She accepted and began under the tutelage of Jacques Loeb and Thomas Hunt Morgan. At Woods Hole Biological Laboratory, she conducted work on the nervous system of jellyfish. She produced many detailed drawings and descriptions of the nerve cells. In 1893, Hyde received a European Fellowship from the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, which would later become the American Association of University Women.

Ida received her Ph.D. at Heidelberg University, Germany at age 39 after many frustrating obstacles presented because of her gender. She was required to go beyond the work of an average student to receive her degree, and became the third woman to graduate with a doctorate there. The main problem in obtaining her degree was that her teaching professor, Wilhelm Kühne, disliked the thought of allowing a woman to work under him. But her accomplishments eventually surmounted his opposition and she passed the doctoral examinations with honor in February 1896. Her thesis project examined the physiological development of jellyfish (Hydromedusa).

Career

Following completion of her doctorate, she was invited to Naples, Italy as the Investigator of Residence at the Naples Zoological Station, a prestigious post. She continued work on marine invertebrate physiology, until moving to the University of Bern, Switzerland to work with Dr. Kronecker on muscle physiology. She became the first woman admitted to do research at Harvard Medical School under W.T. Porter. While continuing her research, she also furthered her education and medical training at Harvard. Hyde remained an educator as well, teaching classes at preparatory schools and at Woods Hole during the summer.

She was hired as an Associate Professor by the University of Kansas in 1899 and founded the Department of Physiology, also serving as its first Chair.

Over her career, Hyde's research covered the nervous, circulatory, and respiratory systems of vertebrates and invertebrates, and explored the effects of narcotics, caffeine, and alcohol on the body. She was the first women elected into the American Society of Physiologists in 1902.

Microelectrode

Hyde was a researcher and professor, but also an inventor and innovator. She developed instruments for monitoring physiological parameters in a marine animal that could be used in seawater. Her most well-known invention was an intracellular micropippette electrode, used for stimulating cells at the micro level while recording electrical activity within the cell without disturbing the cellular wall. This device was a revolutionary invention in neurophysiology and the study of contractile nerve tissue.

Selected Publications

• Notes on the Hearts of Certain Mammals. The American Naturalist 25(298) 1891. pp. 861–863. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2451734

• The Nervous System in Goneomea Murbachii. Biological Bulletin 4(1) 1902. pp 40–45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1535511

• The Kaiser and the Devilfish. The New York Evening Post Magazine, May 25, 1918.

• A micro-electrode and unicellular stimulation. Biol. Bull. 40:130-133, 1921.

• Effects of music upon electrocardiograms and blood pressure. J. Exp. Psychol. 7:213-224 1924.

Confronting Discrimination of Women

It was not until I had worked many days in the splendid laboratory assigned to my private use that it dawned upon me that I was occupying a unique position... In the university circle the news quickly spread that an American "woman's rights" freak... had had the boldness and audacity to force entrance into the college halls. -- Ida H. Hyde, "Before Women Were Human Beings".

Hyde repeatedly encountered barriers to her education and career due to her gender, and pressed for more equal access and treatment of women in academia throughout her life. When she was denied the right to enroll in Strassburg University because of her gender, she went to Heidelberg University. Although she was allowed to matriculate, the university's medical school did not permit women, and the faculty denied her entry to physiology lectures or laboratories. Fortunately, her male colleagues shared their lecture notes, and after intense study she passed her doctoral examinations with honor. She wrote about her difficulties in a revealing account in the AAUW Journal entitled "Before Women Were Human Beings".

After returning to America, Hyde enlisted the help of many fellow women academics and wealthy female benefactors to create a fund to support women in science. The Naples Table Association became a source of both financial aid and professional support for women in scientific research, with 36 women benefiting from the program. In 1927, she established a scholarship at University of Kansas for women pursuing careers in the sciences, and endowed the Ida H. Hyde International Fellowship with the Association of American University Women (AAUW). On the campus of KU, she pushed for toilet facilities in the science buildings; these buildings were built with only restrooms provided for men, assuming there would be no need for women's facilities. She repeatedly pressed the university for equal pay and worked in the community to increase the opportunities for women in diverse professions.

External links

• Encyclopedia of World Biography on Ida Henrietta Hyde
• Biography From Answers.com
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