Amalia Moretti Foggia (May 11, 1872 – July 11, 1947) was an Italian physician and journalist. She is the third woman to graduate in medicine at the University of Bologna. She is also known as Dottor Amal and Petronilla, pseudonyms used by her during her career in journalism. Biography Early life She was born in Mantua in a progressivist and secular family, from a pharmacist and expert herborist Giovanni Battista, who was also a chemistry professor, and Carolina Rinoldi. The couple lost a child years before having Amalia due to smallpox, and when she was nearly one year old she was diagnosed with a strong enteritis, of which she was expected to die for, as at the time there wasn’t any cure for the disease. Although it was a primary cause for infant mortality at the time, thanks to her father's pharmacist abilities and knowledge she was able to recover. In one of her last expected nights her father made a saving potion composed of different kind of herbs, which unexpectedly changed the situation giving her a new beginning. That episode of her life became crucial in defining the deep and intense love she began to have towards nature from that moment until her death. In her autobiography book she states “nature is a friend and saves us if we respect it and if we try to know its secrets and possibilities”. Young Amalia grew up studying, looking after his little brothers and spending a lot of her free time in the back room of her family's pharmacy, "Farmacia di Santa Lucia", observing his father making potions with herbs and taking notes. She will then eventually publish all that information in her books under the pseudonym of “Dottor Amal”. She developed a very strong relationship with her father, who not only encouraged her to pursue her interest in his same career, but also to become an independent woman. In 1884 Amalia's mother died of Pneumonia and her aunt Cleonice took her under her wing. In that moment her vocation was clear: she would become a doctor and heal others by finding ways to help women as much as possible as they need more help than their men. In those years she had troubles in her relationship with her father and her aunt Cleonice as they had different opinions, both on the kind of studying she would have had and also