Mary Ethel Florey

Mary Ethel Hayter Reed was born 1 October 1900 in New South Wales, Australia. Her father, John Hayter Reed, was the manager of the Bank of Australasia. He and his wife, Joanna Agnes du Vé, lived in the Red House located atop North Adelaide with Ethel and her siblings. [1] Ethel attended Tormore House School before earning a M.B. B.S. from the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1924, despite her parent’s oppositions for her to go into medicine. [2]

Throughout her life, Ethel struggled with poor health, including a severe infection that attacked the middle ear causing deafness. Nonetheless, she excelled in her studies, becoming the only female in her cohort to do so. During her studies, she met Howard Florey (1898-1968) when he approached her to write an article about Women in Medicine for the university newspaper. [3] Their correspondence developed into a close relationship. When Florey left for England on his Rhodes Scholarship, Ethel did not follow, content with staying in Adelaide. After graduation, she secured an internship at the Adelaide Children's Hospital. Initially reluctant to move to England, she eventually set sail to England where they married in 1926. Her medical career was halted when she gave birth to her two children, Paquita and Charles du Vé.

Ethel’s worsening health and hearing impairment was a constant source of anxiety and frustration to both she and Florey. Despite this, they did co-author two papers in 1929: one on canine mucus reaction to fright and another on the methods for testing the presence of the adrenal cortex hormone. [4] [5] She collaborated with Florey in Antibiotics and later published under her own name a four-part companion work, The Clinical Application of Antibiotics (London) (1952-1961). She was an extremely determined woman and from 1939 led an active professional life). [6]

During WWII, Ethel led the Oxford Regional Blood Transfusion Service and later assisted in the penicillin trials at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Birmingham Accident Hospital, and other military hospitals. Whilst at Radcliffe Infirmary, Ethel alerted Florey to Constable Albert Alexander, one of the first patients treated with penicillin. The treatment was unsuccessful, but only due to the insufficient amounts of penicillin that could be produced at the time. With increased production, a greater number of patients could be treated.

The William Dunn School of Pathology treated fifteen seriously ill patients and over 170 localised infections. [7] Ethel became known as a ‘corpse retriever’, with doctors sending patients to her department who had been unsuccessfully treated with other medication. Despite the name sounding distasteful, this helped penicillin appear more impressive, bringing patients back from the dead.

Following the war, Ethel continued treating patients with penicillin and earned her Doctor of Medicine (in absentia) in 1950. Despite her persistent ill-health that worsened as the years progressed, her devotion to Oxford and her colleagues never wavered, stating she could “never desert those wonderful people [at Oxford]. I worked with them all through the war and to leave them forever would be deserting.” [8]

Ethel passed away in 1966.

References

[1] Macfarlane, R. G. (1979). Howard Florey, the Making of a Great Scientist. Oxford University Press.

[2] Macfarlane, R. G. (1979). Howard Florey, the Making of a Great Scientist. Oxford University Press.

[3] Lax, E. (2004). The Mould in Florey’s Coat; the Remarkable True Story of the Penicillin Miracle. Little, Brown.

[4] Bickel, L. (1972). Rise Up to Life: a Biography of Howard Walter Florey who made Penicillin and Gave it to the World. Angus and Robertson

[5] Macfarlane, R. G. (1979). Howard Florey, the Making of a Great Scientist. Oxford University Press.

[6] Fenner, F. (1996). Florey, Mary Ethel Hayter (1900–1966). Australian Dictionary of Biography. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/florey-mary-ethel-hayter-10695/text18037. First published in 1996, Australian Dictionary of Biography, (Vol 14).

[7] Lax, E. (2004). The Mould in Florey’s Coat; the Remarkable True Story of the Penicillin Miracle. Little, Brown.

[8] Bickel, L. (1972). Rise Up to Life: a Biography of Howard Walter Florey who made Penicillin and Gave it to the World. Angus and Robertson

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