science

Mary de Sousa

Mary de Sousa is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mary de Sousa rather than just read about it. In short: Mary Mathilda de Sousa, née Pereira (1890–1953) was an Indian-Kenyan doctor. She was the first Asian female doctor in Kenya, practicing from 1919.

Key takeaways

Mary de Sousa belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mary de Sousa to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mary de Sousa from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mary Mathilda de Sousa, née Pereira (1890–1953) was an Indian-Kenyan doctor. She was the first Asian female doctor in Kenya, practicing from 1919.

Life Mary Mathilda Pereira was raised in Mazagon, Bombay, one of fourteen children of Peter Paul Pereira. She graduated from Grant Medical College in 1914 as a Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery. She worked as a medical officer in the Bhavnagar district and Chhota Udaipur district before returning to Bombay to work at the Kerrawala Maternity Hospital. In 1919 attended the Lahore session of the Indian National Congress. After marrying Dr Alex Caetano Lactancio de Sousa in 1919, she moved to Nairobi with him. There she worked as a doctor and midwife. After the Lady Grigg Welfare League was formed in 1926, de Sousa successfully fundraised to build a maternity hospital, the Lady Grigg Indian Maternity Home, for Indian women. She and her husband refused a place on the board of governors, since the hospital's constitution did not provide for balanced representation of Indians and Europeans on the committee. She was also involved in the Indian Education Board, and in the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts. Mary de Sousa hosted important Indian visitors in her house, such as Sarojini Naidu, who led the East African Indian National Congress twice. In the mid-1940s she became ill, and was mostly confined to her house for the last decade of her life.

Personal life Mary Pereira married a fellow medical doctor, Alexio Caetano Lactancio de Sousa, in 1919. He survived her when she died in Nairobi in 1953, aged 63 years. They had three children, Theo, Peter, and Aura; their son Peter A. de Sousa became a doctor like his parents.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mary de Sousa

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mary de Sousa claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mary de Sousa before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mary de Sousa ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mary de Sousa

In research: Mary de Sousa appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mary de Sousa in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mary de Sousa is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1890 births, 1953 deaths, 20th-century Indian medical doctors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mary de Sousa outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mary de Sousa in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mary de Sousa means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mary de Sousa out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mary de Sousa in simple terms?

Mary Mathilda de Sousa, née Pereira (1890–1953) was an Indian-Kenyan doctor. She was the first Asian female doctor in Kenya, practicing from 1919.

Why does Mary de Sousa matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mary de Sousa?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mary de Sousa.