Harvey Washington Wiley Manuscript

Harvey Washington Wiley (1844-1930) was chief chemist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 1883 to 1912. During his career in the USDA Bureau of Chemistry, he fought for the enactment of a pure food and drug law in the United States. In 1902, he organized a study on the effects of a diet containing various food additives, using human subjects. A dozen young men in Wiley's department volunteered to eat only the processed foods he gave them over period of time, while Wiley recorded the results. This group became popularly known as the "poison squad." Wiley published a 2,000-page report on the data he collected from these experiments over several years. Soon after the report was released, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. A prolific author, Wiley wrote books, government bulletins, and scientific papers on agricultural chemistry.