No explanation other than chance

As a child I wondered why no women were poisoned, other than sheer dumb luck. When I recently started more intense research, I discovered conflicting accounts.

The Friday, Feb. 6, 1925 issue of the Canton Daily News stated:

    The fact that Dr. Gertrude F. Jones, medical advisor for girls, does not prescribe quinine and aspirin to her patients who suffer with colds, was said to account for the fact no girls were among the poison victims.

However, the Ohio State Lantern had this on the very same day:

    No explanation other than chance can be advanced for no co-eds being among those poisoned. 

    Student health service, under direction of Dr. H. Shindle Wingert, treats as many women as men in proportion to their enrollment in the University. Last month 300 women and 1900 men visited the health bureau. Dr. Gertrude F. Jones of the department of physical education for women does not maintain a separate health service for co-eds. Miss Jones does not treat cases, but merely advises.

G.F. Jones*

Hmm. I'll probably never know the answer, but I then became curious about Dr. Jones. It wasn't easy being a female doctor in those days. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones seems particularly elusive. I found a tiny mention in The Ohio State University Monthly for July 1926:

That Dr. Gertrude F. Jones, Medical Advisor, Department of Physical Education for Women, be granted leave of absence for the Autumn, Winter and Spring Quarters, 1926-27, without salary. 

Eleven months later she was noted in the Wednesday, June 8, 1927 issue of The Lantern:

Resignation of Dr. Jones Handed in to Trustees

    Dr. Gertrude F. Jones of the department of women's physical education has given her resignation to the Board of Trustees and it will be acted upon at their meeting June 13. Dr. Jones has been the medical adviser of the department since 1923. She is a graduate of Leland Stanford University. She has been practicing in New York City since her year's leave of absence granted last fall.

(I was grimly amused to see she graduated from Stanford. You might recall that Leland Stanford and his wife Jane Stanford co-founded Stanford University in 1885, but she was murdered by strychnine in 1905 in Oahu.)

After that I lose the trail. She possibly returned to Stanford where a Dr. Gertrude F. Jones taught obstetrics, but I cannot be sure at this time it's the same woman.

*I am not positive this is the same G.F. Jones (or Gertrude F. Jones) or not in the 1919 Stanford Dart.

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