The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley was born in 1844, and raised on his family’s farm in Indiana, where he worked alongside his progressive, abolitionist parents in all aspects of their agrarian endeavors. Dr. Wiley attained his medical degree, earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, and was appointed Purdue University’s first chemistry professor. While on sabbatical from Purdue, Dr. Wiley went to Europe and studied under the renowned scientist August Wilhelm von Hoffman, where he learned the most current, sophisticated techniques of food analysis in the field. He returned with specialized laboratory instruments he purchased himself and a level of expertise unmatched in the United States.

In 1881, the Indiana Board of Health asked Dr. Wiley to examine samples of honey, maple syrup, jam, and other products with a high sugar content being sold to consumers. Dr. Wiley discovered that these products were rarely what they claimed to be; most were corn syrup dyed to approximate a desirable color. Dr. Wiley did not object to the sale of corn syrup, but he believed that consumers were entitled to transparency. While Dr. Wiley’s reports on his findings resulted in criticism from members of the corn and honey industries, they earned him the attention of George Loring, head of the United States Department of Agriculture.