The Fruitful Role of E. V. McCollum in Herbert Hoover's U.S. Food Administration During World War I

THEFRUITFUL ROLE OFE. V. MCCOLLUM IN HERBERT HOOVER'S U.S. FOOD ADMINISTRATION DURING WORLD WAR I HARRY G. DAY* Elmer Verner McCollum (1879-1967) and Herbert C. Hoover (18741964 ) were essentially self-made sons of pioneers in the Middle West. Their memorable contributions over manyyears differed widely, but overall, each in his area of special competence and dedication was remarkably beneficial to mankind. McCollum was born and raised in rural Kansas; Hoover's beginning was in rural Iowa. Five years apart in age, their paths and professional interests remained separate until they suddenly crossed at the beginning of this country's deep involvement in World War I. The Career ofE. V. McCollum Much of significance in McCollum's progress occurred before he first met Hoover. This included for McCollum hard work as a youth on the family farm, equivocal quality rural schooling, stimulating and greatly broadening high school experiences, then intense but very rewarding study at the University of Kansas from 1900 to 1904. In this latter time period he earned A.B. and M.A. degrees in chemistry and determined that he would devote his life to chemistry-based teaching and research. Also, these beginning years in diverse schools included extensive and toilsome parttime work to earn urgently needed support money. Even so, his remarkable academic achievements gained him several recognitions, including election in hisjunior university year to membership in the national scientific honorary Sigma Xi Society—normally such elections did not occur before advanced graduate school standing was attained. Also, before receiving his * Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405.© 1996 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0031-5982/96/4001-0974$01.00 Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 40, 1 ¦ Autumn 1996 7 A.B. degree, he was the co-author of some chemistry studies on Kansas petroleum read before the Kansas Academy of Science [1, p.309]. At Yale for graduate work, McCollum focused on organic chemistry. To earn support money he devoted much time to the tutoring of undergraduates in chemistry courses. In the second year this income was augmented by his selection to receive the coveted Loomis Prize. McCollum's Ph.D. degree was awarded in 1906, but owing to the lack of a suitable academic appointment he remained at Yale another year to work with T. B. Osborne and then with L. B. Mendel. McCollum's change to physiological chemistry (biochemistry) was appreciated from the beginning, but its great importance to him was not immediately realized. In March 1907 Mendel received a request from the new head of agricultural chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Professor E. B. Hart. As McCollum wrote in his autobiography 57 years later, "Hart asked Mendel to recommend a young man trained in biochemistrywho would devote himself to the study of animal nutrition" [2, p.102]. Mendel and McCollum discussed the matter. Although the field was new to McCollum, Mendel's view that this would be "a good opportunity ' ' was accepted trustingly, and in the conviction that it indeed promised to be fruitful and challenging. The appointment began on 1 July 1907, in a unique heifer-feeding research program started in 1906. McCollum's responsibility as a biochemist was to "devote himself to the study of [farm] animal nutrition" [2, p.102]. But in a short time, and based in part on extensive searching of the moderately recent literature, he became convinced that the overall design of the project could not yield much of the basic knowledge needed to advance an understanding of nutrition. During this interval a strong bond had developed between himself and the recently retired and highly respected S. M. Babcock, who had been primarily responsible for the planning of the project. Soon McCollum decided that the only feasible way to make truly significant initial progress in nutrition was to use young experimental rats instead of farm animals such as cows. Babcock firmly agreed. He used his influence and the logic of McCollum's plan to overcome enough opposition —even from Hart— to gain sufficient approval for the beginning of the first rat colony in the United States maintained for nutritional investigations . It was started inJanuary 1908 [1, p.275]. A...