Margaret Todd (doctor)
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Margaret Georgina Todd (23 April 1859 – 3 September 1918) was a Scottish medical doctor and writer. She coined the term ''
isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...
'' in 1913 in a suggestion to chemist Frederick Soddy.


Early life and education

Todd was born in Kilrenny,
Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...
, Scotland, the daughter of James Cameron Todd and Jeannie McBain of
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
. She was educated in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Berlin. Her brother was
James Cameron Todd James Cameron Todd (October 13, 1863 - 1915) was a British Anglicanism, Anglican canon (priest), canon and schoolmaster, who founded Michaelhouse school in South Africa. Early life He was born in Yangon, Rangoon in British Empire, British Bu ...
a British
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...
and schoolmaster, who founded
Michaelhouse Michaelhouse is a full boarding senior school for boys founded in 1896. It is located in the Balgowan, KwaZulu-Natal, Balgowan valley in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The Spear’s Schools Index 2025 reco ...
school in South Africa. A Glaswegian schoolteacher, in 1886, Todd became one of the first students at the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women after hearing that the Scottish Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons had opened their exams to women. She took eight years to complete the four-year course because, using the pseudonym Graham Travers, during her studies she wrote a novel, '' Mona Maclean, Medical Student''. This was described by '' Punch'' magazine as "a novel with a purpose – no recommendation for a novel, more especially when the purpose selected is that of demonstrating the indispensability of women-doctors". After graduating in 1894, she took her MD in Brussels.


Career

She was appointed Assistant Medical Officer at Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children but retired after five years. Her first book was well received. She later published ''Fellow Travellers'' and ''Kirsty O' The Mill Toun'' in 1896, followed by ''Windyhaugh'' in 1898, always using her male pen name, although her real identity was known by then and mentioned in reviews of her books. By 1906, even her publishers added "Margaret Todd, M.D." in parentheses after her pseudonym. In addition to six novels, she wrote short stories for magazines.


Isotopes

Todd was a family friend of chemist Frederick Soddy, then a lecturer at the
University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...
. In 1913, Soddy explained to her the research on
radioactivity Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...
for which he won the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...
in 1921. He had shown that some radioactive elements have more than one atomic mass, although the chemical properties are identical, so that atoms of different masses occupy the ''same place'' in the
periodic table The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the elements, is an ordered arrangement of the chemical elements into rows (" periods") and columns (" groups"). It is an icon of chemistry and is widely used in physics and other s ...
. Todd suggested that such atoms be named ''isotopes'', Greek for ''at the same place''. This term was accepted and used by Soddy, and has become standard scientific nomenclature.


Personal life

Todd is assumed to have been in a romantic relationship with Dr Sophia Jex-Blake, founder of Todd's university and place of employment. On Jex-Blake's retirement in 1899, they moved to Windydene, Mark Cross, where Todd wrote ''The Way of Escape'' (1902) and ''Growth'' (1906). After Jex-Blake's death, she wrote ''The Life of Dr Sophia Jex-Blake'' (1918) under her own name, describing the fight of women in the 19th century to enter the medical profession. ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' described it as "almost too laboriously minute for the general reader" but it received praise in other publications.


Death and legacy

Todd died aged 59, three months after her book on Jex-Blake was published. According to one source, she died by suicide; her '' Times'' obituary states only that she died in a nursing home in London. After her death, a scholarship was created in her name at the LSMW. She left £3,000 in her will () to be used to promote the advancement of women in medicine.


Selected works

* Graham Travers. '' Mona Maclean, Medical Student'' (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1892). * ''Fellow Travellers'' (1896) * ''Kirsty O' The Mill Toun'' (1896) * (1899) * ''The Way of Escape'' (1902) * ''Growth'' (1906)
''The Life of Sophia Jex-Blake''
(1918)


References


Attribution

* - brief biographical information for Margaret Todd


Further reading

*


External links

*
Classic Chemistry -- Elements and Atoms: Chapter 20 -- Isotopes: Soddy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Margaret 1859 births 1918 deaths 19th-century Scottish medical doctors 20th-century Scottish medical doctors 19th-century Scottish novelists 20th-century Scottish novelists 19th-century Scottish women writers 20th-century Scottish women writers Scottish schoolteachers Scottish medical writers Women medical writers Scottish women novelists Scottish LGBTQ novelists Victorian writers Victorian women writers 20th-century Scottish women medical doctors 19th-century Scottish women medical doctors People from Fife People from Rotherfield