Jump to content

Harvey Washington Wiley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 168.216.34.64 (talk) at 16:09, 7 September 2011 (→‎Death). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Harvey Washington Wiley
Harvey Washington Wiley circa 1913

Harvey Washington Wiley (October 18, 1844 - June 30, 1930) was a noted chemist best known for his leadership in the passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and his subsequent work at the Good Housekeeping Institute laboratories. He was the first commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. He was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal of The Franklin Institute in 1910.

Early life and career

Wiley was born on October 18, 1844 in a log farmhouse near Kent, in Jefferson County, Indiana, the son of a farmer. He enrolled in nearby Hanover College in 1863 and studied for about one year until patriotism inspired him to enlist with the Union Army in 1864 as a corporal in Company I of the 137th Regiment Indiana Volunteers during the American Civil War. He returned to Hanover in 1865 where he majored in the humanities and was a top graduate (A.B.) in 1867. He received an A.M. there in 1870. Wiley studied at Indiana Medical College where he received his M.D. in 1871. He was professor of Greek and Latin at Butler College, Indianapolis, 1868-70.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Wiley was nicknamed the "Father of the Pure Food and Drugs Act" when it became law in 1906. Wiley authored two editions of Foods and Their Adulteration (1907 and 1911), which detailed the history, preparation and subsequent adulteration of basic foodstuffs to a broad audience. He was also a founding father of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists, and left a legacy to the American pure food movement as its "crusading chemist" that was both broad and substantial.

The fact that enforcement of the federal Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was given to the Bureau of Chemistry rather than placed in the Department of Commerce or the Department of the Interior is a tribute to the scientific qualifications which the Bureau of Chemistry brought to the study of food and drug adulteration and misbranding. The first food and drug inspectors were hired to complement the work of the laboratory scientists, and an inspection program was launched which revolutionized the country's food supply within the first decade under the new federal law.

Wiley's tenure was marked by controversy over the administration of the 1906 statute which he had worked so hard to secure. Concerns over preserving chemicals, which had not been specifically addressed in the law, continued to be controversial. The Secretary of Agriculture appointed a Referee Board of Consulting Scientists, headed by Ira Remsen at Johns Hopkins University to repeat Wiley's human trials of preservatives. The use of saccharin, bleached flour, caffeine, and benzoate of soda were all important issues which had to be ultimately settled by the courts in the early days under the new law.

Under Wiley's leadership, however, the Bureau of Chemistry grew significantly, both in strength and in stature after assuming responsibility for the enforcement of the 1906 Act. Between 1906 and 1912, Wiley's staff expanded from 110 to 146. Appropriations, which had been $155,000 in 1906 were $963,780 in 1912. The Bureau moved into its own building and used the healing symbol of Aesculapius' staff, or Ophiuchus. In 1911, his dismissal from the Department of Agriculture was urged on the technical charge that an expert in his department had received recompense exceeding the legal rate. Later in the year, President Taft wrote a letter wholly exonerating Wiley.[1]

Work at Good Housekeeping

In 1912, Wiley resigned and took over the laboratories of Good Housekeeping magazine, where he continued his work on behalf of the consuming public. His disapprobation of “drugged” products included cola drinks: he warned against the caffeine in them as vehemently as he would have against the cocaine they had once contained. In a famous action brought against the Coca-Cola company in 1911, he contended that it was illegal to use the name Coca-Cola when there was no actual cocaine in the drink, and also that it was illegal for it to contain caffeine as an additive. Perversely, this was as much as to say that the product ought to have contained cocaine and not caffeine. Still, the case was a landmark in developing standards for truth in labelling.

He remained with Good Housekeeping for 18 years.

Death

Harvey Wiley died at his home in Washington, D.C. on June 30, 1930, the 24th anniversary of the signing of the Pure Food fart Drug law. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with his wife Anna Kelton Wiley (1877–1964) whom he married in 1911.

Legacy

Harvey W. Wiley has been honored in a number of ways since his passing:

The Liberty Ship S.S. Harvey W. Wiley was one of 2751 World War II Liberty Ships built between 1941 and 1945. She was a tanker laid down September 15, 1943, launched October 15, 1943, sold by the government in 1947, and scrapped in 1969.

The U.S. Post Office issued a 3 cent postage stamp in Wiley's honor on June 27, 1956, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the 1906 Act.

The Harvey W. Wiley Award is AOAC International's most prestigious scientific award established in 1956 and presented annually since 1957 to a scientist (or group of scientists) who have made an outstanding contribution to analytical method development in an area of interest to AOAC International. AOAC International was originally founded in 1884 as the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. Wiley as a founding member, President in 1886, Secretary from 1889 to 1912, and Honorary President until his death in 1930.

Wiley has several buildings named in his honor. Wiley was honored by Hanover College with a "Wiley Residence Hall" inaugurated in 1956. He was also honored by Purdue University in 1958 when the "Harvey W. Wiley Residence Hall" was opened northwest of the main academic campus. The FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) operations are located in the Harvey W. Wiley Federal Building in College Park, MD, constructed in 2001, and named after Wiley in 2002.

His birthplace near Kent is commemorated with an Indiana historic marker sign placed at the corner of IN-256 & CR-850W. The marker was sponsored by the Association of Food and Drug Officials and erected in 1981.

The French government named him a Chevalier of the Order of the Légion d'honneur in 1909.

The Harvey Washington Wiley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry is an honor established through the Chemistry department at Purdue University. The position has been occupied since 1997 by Dr. Dale W. Margerum.

The home he built at Somerset, Maryland in 1893, the Wiley-Ringland House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.[2]

Publications

He also edited a series of Health Readers for Schools in 1919.

See also

References

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference eb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
Notes

External links

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Harvey Washington Wiley

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harvey_Washington_Wiley&oldid=448956519"