This glass bottle contains eserine (or physostigmine), a drug with various medical applications. It is used to treat myasthenia gravis, a condition causing muscle weakness, commonly in the face. Its effectiveness against this disease was first proven in 1934 by Scottish physician Mary Broadfoot Walker (1888-1974), whose story illustrates barriers faced by women at the time.
Walker graduated from the Edinburgh Medical College for Women in 1913, when women could not train alongside men at the University of Edinburgh. She then served in the Royal Army Medical Corps (1916-1919), where male physicians were paid more and received military rank, so had seniority over their female colleagues, even those with more experience. Then, limited by the positions available to women, Walker spent her career working in ‘poor law’ hospitals in London, settings which were seen as 'low status' and where research was not supported. Walker overcame these challenges to make a significant contribution to neuromuscular medicine by demonstrating the cause of myesthenia gravis alongside establishing two effective treatments (physostigmine and prostigmin). Walker also pioneered the use of potassium chloride in familial periodic paralysis (a rare disorder causing sudden weakness and paralysis). Despite receiving the University of Edinburgh’s Thesis Gold Medal in 1935, the extent of Walker’s contribution was not fully recognised during her career. After she retired, Walker was awarded the first Jean Hunter Prize (1963), recognising both her contribution to the understanding of myasthenia gravis and the barriers she faced while accomplishing this.
Ellen Coleman, Hidden Histories Project Researcher
