Rats, Fats, and History

RATS, FATS, AND HISTORY HOWARD A. SCHNEIDER* In 1883 a Department of Agricultural Chemistry was founded at the University of Wisconsin in the city of Madison. One hundred years later seems a fitting time to look back, to gain some perspective on the fortunes of that academic undertaking. It is in looking back that I discern an intriguing wave in the tide of time. Although in the first 30 years there was much of interest, I shall leave that span to others. In 1913 the department gained a new sense of presence, as bricks and mortar were laid to form what is now known as the "old building." The department's title, "Agricultural Chemistry," was inscribed in the stone lintel over the entrance door, and is found there still, even though, since 1938, the department's title has been "Biochemistry." I mention these facts with no hope of startling anyone, for they are well known, but rather to establish the time frame for that special segment of the history of the department, that wave that I think I have discerned and that I wish to address. It is my thesis that 1913, the year the lintel was set, was a watershed year for agricultural chemistry, for the newly emerging sciences of human and animal nutrition, and for the ambitions of a remarkable group ofchemists in the department at that time. The key discovery that marks this watershed year was the recognition of what came to be known as the fat-soluble vitamins. The first of these was vitamin A. What I now propose is to delineate, as best I can, the historical and philosophical roots of this discovery, and try to understand thereby why the fat-soluble vitamins were first discovered in Madison; why it was in 1913; and how the people who did it came to do it just then. This paper is drawn from the opening address, Centennial Celebration, Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, August 26, 1983. The original address will be published by this title in One Hundred Years ofBiochemistry at Wisconsin, Science Tech. Inc., Madison, 1986. *Director (retired), Institute of Nutrition, University of North Carolina System, and professor emeritus of Biochemistry and Nutrition, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514.© 1986 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 003 1 -5982/86/2903-0492$0 1 .00 392 I Howard A. Schneider ¦ Rats, Fats, and History Why Madison? In thinking about the questions raised by recognition of a certain event—say, the discovery of vitamin A—is to link that unique event with specifications of time (1913) and place (Madison, Wis.). There is a school of thought that says that such a discovery was bound to take place, sooner or later. Further, says this school, it is the total activity of the scientific community, committed to certain principles of outlook and procedure, that insures the slow but certain unfolding of the laws of nature. Progress, at times, may be slow, but it is certain. By these lights, then, if vitamin A was discovered in Madison, then Madison was just the locus of the last, but sufficient, effort. Science, says this view, progresses by increments, and there is nothing special about Madison in the matter of the vitamin A discovery. Madison was the scene of the final increment. As scientists, then, by this view we are actors in scenes of frenetic activity (which may be an accurate description at times) and are like the oft-remarked monkeys that in large numbers, and over long periods of time, byjumping up and down on the keys of typewriters, could produce all the books in the British Museum. If, at times, the product of our own labors seems ridiculously small, then perhaps we are involved with a bad set of typewriters. This view of the history of science, which is widely held by the general public (if it thinks about it at all), is a comfort to many since it is so "democratic." Scientists, to change the simile, like ants, seem to be very busy in their mysterious comings and goings, but just what is on their minds is not at all...