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Elmer Verner McCollum (March 3, 1879 – November 15, 1967) was an American
biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of "biological c ...
known for his work on the influence of diet on
health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity". World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Org ...
.Kruse, 1961. McCollum is also remembered for starting the first
rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus '' Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...
colony in the United States to be used for nutrition research. His reputation has suffered from posthumous
controversy Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin ''controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an opposite d ...
. ''Time'' magazine called him Dr.Vitamin. His rule was, "Eat what you want after you have eaten what you should." Living at a time when vitamins were unknown, he asked and tried to answer the questions, "How many dietary essentials are there, and what are they?" He and Marguerite Davis discovered the first vitamin, namedA, in 1913. McCollum also helped to discover vitaminB and vitaminD and worked out the effect of trace elements in the diet. As a worker in Wisconsin and later at
Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for mos ...
, McCollum acted partly at the request of the
dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located ...
industry. When he said that
milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modul ...
was "the greatest of all protective foods", milk consumption in the United States doubled between 1918 and 1928. McCollum also promoted
leafy greens Leaf vegetables, also called leafy greens, pot herbs, vegetable greens, or simply greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots. Leaf vegetables eaten raw in a salad can be called salad gr ...
, which had no industry advocates. McCollum wrote in his 1918 textbook that
lacto vegetarianism A lacto-vegetarian (sometimes referred to as a lactarian; from the Latin root lact-, ''milk'') diet is a diet that abstains from the consumption of meat as well as eggs, while still consuming dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, ...
is, "when the diet is properly planned, the most highly satisfactory plan which can be adopted in the nutrition of man".


Family and education

McCollum's ancestors immigrated to the United States from
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
in 1763.Chick, 1969. McCollum was born in 1879 to Cornelius Armstrong McCollum and Martha Catherine Kidwell McCollum on a farm from Redfield, Kansas, usually reported to have been
Fort Scott, Kansas Fort Scott is a city in and the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 7,552. It is named for Gen. Winfield Scott. The city is located south of Kansas City on the Marmaton ...
, which was away.Day, 1974. His parents had little education but became relatively well-off by local standards.Chick, 1969. He spent his first seventeen years on this farm and attended a one-room school. He had one brother, Burton, and three sisters. At some point he had surgery for a detached retina, which the doctors were unable to "glue back again".Rider, 1970. His father suffered from
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...
. His mother, who had only two winters of schooling but was devoted to her children's education, took McCollum and his brother to the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, ...
. All three of his sisters graduated from Lombard University and married Universalist ministers. A lifelong close friend of his brother's, Burton became a geophysicist who helped to pioneer the use of sound waves in oil drilling. In 1896 his mother moved their family to
Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers. As of the 2020 census, ...
, where they hoped to profit from a fruit farm adjoining the
University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. ...
. They planted peach, apple, and plum trees and acres of raspberries and blackberries, all of which took some years to mature. McCollum failed the general certification examination, but was allowed to enter high school provisionally based on his habit of extensive reading and his memorization of standard poetry. Though extremely shy around girls, he was elected class president in his junior and senior years. He fell in love with the school's ''
Encyclopædia Britannica The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
'', purchased a set for $25 (about two months of his earnings), and used it for twenty-five years until he bought a new edition. In high school he joined the Unitarian church. He worked his way through high school and college, including time spent as a gas
lamplighter A lamplighter is a person employed to light and maintain candle or, later, gas street lights. Very few exist today as most gas street lighting has long been replaced by electric lamps. Function Lights were lit each evening, generally by means ...
. While a junior in college, McCollum was elected to
Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 188 ...
, a non-profit honor society for those interested in science and engineering. As his mother had hoped, McCollum graduated from the University of Kansas in 1903. While there, he abandoned the dream of becoming a doctor, and during his sophomore year, he consumed
organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J. ...
, earning a bachelor's degree in three years, followed by his master's in 1904. He secured a scholarship to
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
in 1904, and wrote his thesis on
pyrimidine Pyrimidine (; ) is an aromatic, heterocyclic, organic compound similar to pyridine (). One of the three diazines (six-membered heterocyclics with two nitrogen atoms in the ring), it has nitrogen atoms at positions 1 and 3 in the ring. The oth ...
s. McCollum got his Ph.D. from Yale in two years. He remained for another year as a
postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...
working with Thomas Osborne and Lafayette Mendel on plant
protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...
and diet. Then Mendel found a position for McCollum at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
, not in his preferred organic chemistry, but as an instructor in
agricultural chemistry Agricultural chemistry is the study of chemistry, especially organic chemistry and biochemistry, as they relate to agriculture—agricultural production, the processing of raw products into foods and beverages, and environmental monitoring and ...
, where
Dennis Robert Hoagland Dennis Robert Hoagland (April 2, 1884 – September 5, 1949) was an American chemist and plant scientist working in the fields of plant nutrition, agricultural chemistry, and physiology. He was Professor of Plant Nutrition at the University o ...
enrolled as a master's student in 1912/1913. In 1907 he married Constance Carruth, whom he had known in Lawrence. They had five children (Donald, Jean, Margaret, Kathleen, and Elsbeth). The two divorced later in life. When he was living in Baltimore, in 1945, he married J.Ernestine Becker, a dietitian and co-author of one of his books.


Single-grain experiment

In Wisconsin, McCollum was assigned to analyze cow feed and the animal's
milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modul ...
, blood, feces, and urine for the famous single-grain experiment, directed by department chief Stephen Babcock and his successor Edwin B. Hart. The experiment ran for four years until 1911. Babcock had studied for his Ph.D. at the
University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
in Germany prior to working at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station and then joining the staff in Wisconsin. During this era, German chemists were trying to create the perfect foods for farm animals. Due to discoveries by
Justus von Liebig Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 20 April 1873) was a German scientist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at ...
and others, they thought that any feed that contains a set amount of protein, carbohydrates, fats, salts, and water was equivalent to any other. Babcock did not believe them, and joked with his German colleagues that cows could survive on coal and ground-up leather according to their calculations. After Hart replaced him as department chief in 1906, Babcock and others created an experiment to test his hypothesis. Sixteen calves were purchased on the market. One was part
Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the la ...
and one was part
Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Island ...
. Three out of four groups of calves were given feed prepared from a single grain and raised until they had had two pregnancies. One group received
wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologica ...
, the second received oats, while the third ate only
corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. T ...
. A fourth group received a combination of all three grains. After the first year, only the corn group was thriving, and the others and their young were weak or dying. The wheat group was the worst off, and the oats and mixed groups were in between. Then the weak cows were fed corn. They recovered and bore healthy calves. Hart and his team published their findings in 1911 in ''Physiological Effect on Growth and Reproduction of Rations Balanced from Restricted Sources''. The researchers and Babcock, the leader, could see the results but, they write, "At present we have no solution for the observations made." McCollum summarized, "something fundamental remained to be discovered."


Rat colony

Searching for a breakthrough in human and animal nutrition, McCollum purchased all thirty-seven volumes of Richard Maly's ''Jahresbericht Über Die Fortschritte Der Tier-Chemie'' so he could read them at home. He read of about 13 experiments done between 1873 and 1906 on small animals, often mice, fed restricted diets. In all cases, the animals failed to thrive and died in a few weeks. McCollum determined that he must find out what was lacking in their purified diets, and that he needed to experiment on animals with a short life span, finally deciding on
rats Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus '' Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...
. Rats are omnivorous, and cheaply fed, matured quickly, and "had little sentimental and no positive economic value". The dean of the college of agriculture would not support experiments with what he feared was vermin, but Babcock, who was retired, understood the rats' importance and told McCollum to proceed. Using skills he developed with his brother when they were children, McCollum captured some rats from a horse barn, but they were too vicious and wild. He replaced them with twelve young albino rats with some
domestication Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. ...
that he bought for $6 from a Chicago pet store. His rat colony, started in January 1908, was the first in America used for nutrition research.


Early error

McCollum decided that some diets failed because they lacked "palatability". He thought that if a diet tasted good, and the animals ate more food, then nutrition would be adequate. In 1911 Osborne and Mendel criticized McCollum's hypothesis and his data, when they found that plant protein diets needed to be supplemented with protein-free milk. Rats would then eat purified diets without flavorings. Further, Mendel and Osborne suggested in their papers that McCollum had been less than careful in his experiments. Embarrassed, McCollum acknowledged his error.


Discovery of vitamin A

He was still responsible for the care of the heifers until 1911, and the care and feeding of his rats fell to a new volunteer, Marguerite Davis, a
home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...
-turned-
biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology an ...
student who looked out for them daily, unpaid for five years. She earned $600 for her sixth and final year. Davis helped McCollum develop "the biological method for the analysis of food", and she co-authored a number of papers. Among them was "The Necessity Of Certain Lipins In The Diet During Growth" in 1913. They fed rats pure
casein Casein ( , from Latin ''caseus'' "cheese") is a family of related phosphoproteins ( αS1, aS2, β, κ) that are commonly found in mammalian milk, comprising about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 60% of the proteins in hu ...
,
carbohydrate In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or ma ...
s (
lactose Lactose is a disaccharide sugar synthesized by galactose and glucose subunits and has the molecular formula C12H22O11. Lactose makes up around 2–8% of milk (by mass). The name comes from ' (gen. '), the Latin word for milk, plus the suffi ...
,
dextrin Dextrins are a group of low-molecular-weight carbohydrates produced by the hydrolysis of starch and glycogen. Dextrins are mixtures of polymers of D-glucose units linked by α-(1→4) or α-(1→6) glycosidic bonds. Dextrins can be produced from ...
e, and/or
starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human d ...
), with a little
agar-agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from ogonori (''Gracilaria'') and "tengusa" (''Gelidiaceae''). As found in nature, agar i ...
and a mixture of six or seven
salts In chemistry, a salt is a chemical compound consisting of an ionic assembly of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions, which results in a compound with no net electric charge. A common example is table salt, with positivel ...
. They substituted
lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the ...
or
olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...
for some of the carbohydrates for a group of rats. For 70 to 120 days, their rats grew, and then they stopped growing. They still appeared to be healthy, except the females did not have enough milk to nourish their young. They successfully restored about thirty rats to normality, after these rats had reached the stage of growth suspension, by adding a small amount of extracts of
egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point t ...
or
butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condimen ...
. Their paper included charts for five rats, illustrating their weights over time compared to a normal growth curve, meant to show McCollum and Davis's "almost invariable success in inducing a resumption of growth after complete suspension for a time". One chart showed their results with a fat-free diet. They became convinced that without a substance in the egg or butter extract, rats could not grow, even though they appeared to be healthy. They concluded that rats stop growing until they are fed certain "ether extracts of egg or of butter", and that "there are certain accessory articles in certain food-stuffs which are essential for normal growth for extended periods". They also found this food factor in extracts of alfalfa leaves and in organ meats. This substance that McCollum called "factor A," was later called
vitamin A Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin and an essential nutrient for humans. It is a group of organic compounds that includes retinol, retinal (also known as retinaldehyde), retinoic acid, and several provitamin A carotenoids (most notably ...
. McCollum and Davis, who ultimately received credit for the discovery, submitted their paper for publication three weeks before Osborne and Mendel. Both papers appeared in the same issue of the ''
Journal of Biological Chemistry The ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' (''JBC'') is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1905., jbc.org Since 1925, it is published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It covers research ...
'' in 1913. This turned out to be a very close call given that learning about vitaminA took scientists about 130 years, beginning with
François Magendie __NOTOC__ François Magendie (6 October 1783 – 7 October 1855) was a French physiologist, considered a pioneer of experimental physiology. He is known for describing the foramen of Magendie. There is also a ''Magendie sign'', a downward ...
in 1816 through its synthesis in 1947. Davis published with McCollum from 1909 to 1916, and Nina Simmonds did the same from 1916 to 1929. In the space of six years, McCollum was promoted from instructor to assistant professor, associate professor, and then full professor. He thought that a professor succeeds with his students, "by his ability to make his conversations and lectures more interesting than song, dance, drink and fast driving".


Discovery of vitamin B

Looking at
beriberi Thiamine deficiency is a medical condition of low levels of thiamine (Vitamin B1). A severe and chronic form is known as beriberi. The two main types in adults are wet beriberi and dry beriberi. Wet beriberi affects the cardiovascular system, r ...
and the problem of polished rice, Christiaan Eijkman and Gerrit Grijns were trying to find the cause of polyneuritis (influenced by
Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named af ...
. Eijkman thought
bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...
caused beriberi), but McCollum's approach differed in that he was seeking the reason for failure in growth. McCollum and Davis's experiments with rat diets led to the discovery that Eijkman's and Grijns' anti-neuritic substance was the same as their water-soluble B (
B vitamins B vitamins are a class of water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism and synthesis of red blood cells. Though these vitamins share similar names (B1, B2, B3, etc.), they are chemically distinct compounds that often coexis ...
) in 1915. The finding is number8 in their list of conclusions, "The water-soluble accessory is not the same one as is furnished by butterfat. 20 percent addition of butterfat does not induce any growth unless the other accessory is supplied." He later found that B is actually combined from many different compounds. In 1916 McCollum and Cornelia Kennedy named the factors with alphabetical letters.


Opposition to the new word "vitamine"

McCollum opposed Casimir Funk's 1912 name ''vitamines'' (from ''vital amines''). They thought the prefix "vita" gave the substance too much importance, and that the ending "
amine In chemistry, amines (, ) are compounds and functional groups that contain a basic nitrogen atom with a lone pair. Amines are formally derivatives of ammonia (), wherein one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a substituent such ...
" means something specific in organic chemistry, but they only had scant evidence of one amino group. McCollum and Kennedy write in 1916 in the ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' in their paper "The Dietary Factors Operating in the Production of Polyneuritis" (summarizing what proved to be their incomplete understanding of the time):
"We would, therefore, suggest the desirability of discontinuing the use of the term vitamine, and the substitution of the term fat-soluble A and water-soluble B for the two classes of unknown substances concerned in inducing growth."
In 1920 Jack Drummond noted that the rules of nomenclature include "a neutral substance of undefined composition" ending in "in". Drummond also suggested that the "somewhat cumbrous nomenclature" of fat-soluble A, water-soluble B, etc. (Drummond himself used the expression water-soluble C) stop in favor of vitamins A, B, C, etc., until their nature became known. The word vitamine survived, without its final "e".


Move to Johns Hopkins

In 1917 the
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Ca ...
established a new Department of Chemical Hygiene at
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
, and the unconventional founder's first two appointments were to non-medical scientists working for
agricultural experiment station An agricultural experiment station (AES) or agricultural research station (ARS) is a scientific research center that investigates difficulties and potential improvements to food production and agribusiness. Experiment station scientists work with ...
s. McCollum was offered the chairmanship and a professorship, although he almost didn't get the job. William H. Howell, assistant director of the new school, said, "We had just one misgiving about appointing you to a professorship, McCollum. You look so frail." Indeed, McCollum was six feet tall but weighed only 127 pounds. McCollum was elected a member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Na ...
in 1920. He became emeritus professor in 1945. During his over twenty-five years at Johns Hopkins, McCollum published about 150 papers. His work was on fluorine and the prevention of tooth decay, vitamins D and E, and the effect of a slew of trace minerals in nutrition, including
aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...
,
calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar ...
,
cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, ...
,
phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ea ...
,
potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosphe ...
,
manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial all ...
,
sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable ...
,
strontium Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is e ...
, and
zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic t ...
. McCollum worked with
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, holding o ...
's U.S. Food Administration to help those who were starving in Europe following
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fight ...
. Hoover sent him on a lecture tour of all the major cities in the western U.S., where McCollum explained that the American diet was of poor quality, and that it would be better to eat organ meats (rather than muscle meats), fewer potatoes, and less sugar.


Discovery of vitamin D

In conversation with
John Howland John Howland (February 23, 1673) accompanied the English Separatists and other passengers when they left England on the to settle in Plymouth Colony. He was an indentured servant and in later years an executive assistant and personal secretary ...
, a Johns Hopkins pediatrician, and later with Howland's staff doctors Edwards A. Park and Paul G. Shipley, they found that
rickets Rickets is a condition that results in weak or soft bones in children, and is caused by either dietary deficiency or genetic causes. Symptoms include bowed legs, stunted growth, bone pain, large forehead, and trouble sleeping. Complications ma ...
could be induced through diet. McCollum's research during the early 1920s found that rats could develop rickets when fed a plain cereal diet. His group tested more than 300 diets on rats, finally finding that cod-liver oil could prevent rickets. Building on the work of
Edward Mellanby Sir Edward Mellanby (8 April 1884 – 30 January 1955) was a British biochemist and nutritionist who discovered vitamin D and its role in preventing rickets in 1919. Education Mellanby was born in West Hartlepool, the son of a shipyard owner, a ...
, who had been inspired by the discovery of vitaminA by McCollum and Davis, McCollum fed animals with induced rickets cod liver oil that was heated and aerated so its vitamin A was destroyed. The oil could no longer cure night blindness but did cure rickets. After his rats recovered, he named the substance for the next free letter of the alphabet, vitamin D. Then they became convinced that
sunshine Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when ...
and cod-liver oil both protected against rickets and tested this by carrying rats outside to the sunshine. Soon after, a generation of children grew up on cod-liver oil, and rickets was virtually wiped out. Harry Day, a colleague and McCollum biographer, writes that finding vitaminD was the work of "a host of investigators" but that McCollum and his group did "much of the groundwork". Kenneth Carpenter, professor emeritus at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, writes in his article "The Nobel Prize and the Discovery of Vitamins" that "strangely" McCollum was not nominated for a Nobel Prize. According to Carpenter, during this era, nominations were made for Eijkman,
Funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African Americans, African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African A ...
, Goldberger, Grijns, Hopkins and
Suzuki is a Japan, Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs ...
. Eventually, ten awards were made for various contributions to the discovery of vitamins, including to
Adolf Windaus Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (; 25 December 1876 – 9 June 1959) was a German chemist who won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1928 for his work on sterols and their relation to vitamins. He was the doctoral advisor of Adolf Butenandt who also wo ...
for vitaminD.


Dairy industry ties

Like his predecessors at Wisconsin, McCollum was always mindful of the
dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located ...
industry. At his suggestion, the National Dairy Council was formed in 1915. While at Johns Hopkins, he was the leader of the National Dairy Products Corporation research laboratory and served as a consultant there, for one hour per day and one evening per week. (National Dairy became
Kraft Foods Inc Kraft Foods Inc. was a multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It marketed many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell Ho ...
and is known today as
Mondelez International Mondelez International, Inc. ( ), often styled Mondelēz, is an American multinational confectionery, food, holding and beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual revenue of about $26 billion and operates in ...
and
Kraft Heinz The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food and beverage ...
.) An ad for Formulac
infant formula Infant formula, baby formula, or simply formula (American English); or baby milk, infant milk or first milk (British English), is a manufactured food designed and marketed for feeding to babies and infants under 12 months of age, usually prepar ...
appeared in the ''Journal of the Indiana State Medical Association'' in 1947. Developed by McCollum and marketed by Kraft Foods, Inc., the formula of concentrated milk contained all known vitamins necessary for "proper infant nutrition". McCollum wanted milk to be fortified with vitamin D. Today, the National Dairy Council's website welcomes researchers, saying that it was McCollum "who first made the scientific connection between dairy foods and good health". In 1942 he wrote an article, "What Is the Right Diet?" for ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of '' The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors ...
''. He says there are about forty essential ingredients in the human diet: at least ten of the 22 amino acids, four vitamins (A, D, E, K) that are fat-soluble, nine water-soluble vitamins (C, and various
B vitamins B vitamins are a class of water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism and synthesis of red blood cells. Though these vitamins share similar names (B1, B2, B3, etc.), they are chemically distinct compounds that often coexis ...
), one fatty acid,
dextrose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, u ...
, at least thirteen minerals, water, and oxygen. In his article, he pictures five food groups. First among them is dairy, with the label, "Our best all around food...." Two years before he died, he and his wife attended the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the National Dairy Council. He then traveled to
Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.
, where he attended the first awarding of the McCollum Award by what is today the American Society for Nutrition, sponsored by the National Dairy Council.


Public health advocacy

He gave the Harvey Lectures in 1917, with the title, "The Supplementary Relations among Our Common Foodstuffs". McCollum's textbook ''The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition'' (1918) influenced many dietitians and went through multiple editions coauthored by Nina Simmonds and Elsa Orent-Keiles. In this book he introduced his idea of "protective foods". He wrote that the American diet was of poor quality because it had too much "white flour or cornmeal, muscle meats, potatoes, and sugar". He encouraged a daily quart of milk and plenty of green, leafy vegetables. Not surprisingly, McCollum also promoted lacto-vegetarianism. The fifth and final edition of his textbook appeared in 1939. Under the title "Our Daily Diet", between 1922 and 1946 McCollum wrote about 160 columns for ''
McCall's ''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small- ...
'' magazine. He tackled topics like, "Are there such things as nerve foods?" and "Green vegetables are unbottled medicines." McCollum was the nutrition editor of the magazines ''McCall's'' and ''
Parents A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male ...
''. He was on the editorial boards of the '' Journal of Nutrition'', the ''
Journal of Biological Chemistry The ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' (''JBC'') is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1905., jbc.org Since 1925, it is published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It covers research ...
'', and ''
Nutrition Reviews ''Nutrition Reviews'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal publishing review articles in the field of nutrition science. It was established in 1942 and was acquired by Oxford University Press in 2015. It is published on behalf of the Inter ...
''. Long interested in the effect of diet on the teeth, McCollum was awarded medals by the Connecticut and Ohio dental societies and was a fellow of the New York society as well as an honorary member of the American Academy of Dental Medicine. His paper "The Effect Of Additions Of Fluorine to the Diet Of The Rat On the Quality Of the Teeth" (1925) described how excessive florine would negatively affect dental health in rats. Nonetheless, McCollum would later become a supporter of
water fluoridation Water fluoridation is the controlled adjustment of fluoride to a public water supply solely to reduce tooth decay. Fluoridated water contains fluoride at a level that is effective for preventing cavities; this can occur naturally or by adding ...
from the beginning of recorded evidence for the intervention. In 1938 the
U.S. Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...
reported that adding fluoride to drinking water resulted in fewer dental caries. McCollum was moderator of "The Cause and Prevention of Dental Caries", sponsored by the Good Teeth Council for Children, Inc., that same month. His 1941 article "Diet in Relation to Dental Caries" claimed that vigorous chewing exercises teeth to retain optimum health, that chewing foods has a deterrent effect, and that "protective action of excessive fat in the diet may possibly be due to greasing the tooth surface and the cavity surface". As a new member of the Food and Nutrition Board, McCollum was part of the decision in 1941 to enrich bread and flour with thiamine, niacin, and iron. McCollum was critical of the decision; while he agreed that white bread has nutritional deficiencies, he felt that this action did not compensate for all of the nutrients that are stripped away by milling. In the ensuing controversy, McCollum's status was changed from "board member" to "panel member" and he was no longer invited to board meetings. For years, he continued to think his own plan of adding "nonfat milk solids, brewer's yeast, and wheat and corn germs" was superior to the plan as enacted. As he became a public figure, McCollum often gave lectures, some of which were mentioned in the press. In 1932 he told the New York Academy of Medicine that, when mother rats were deprived of vitaminB, their young were about "half as quick in mental alertness" as young rats whose mothers were not deprived of vitaminB. In 1934 he told ''The New York Times'', "We have proved the necessity for agnesiumin human food, but in very small amounts. Too much results in dopiness. I would say you can't have a sweet disposition without
magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...
, but that does not prove that you will have one when you take plenty." According to ''The New York Times'', in 1936 he asked an audience of four hundred doctors at the Kings County Medical Society in Brooklyn to help investigate the "extravagant claims" being made for some medicinal preparations. He thought that doctors could stop
false advertising False advertising is defined as the act of publishing, transmitting, or otherwise publicly circulating an advertisement containing a false claim, or statement, made intentionally (or recklessly) to promote the sale of property, goods, or servic ...
by immediately establishing the facts of each new discovery. McCollum then gave a long list of dos and don'ts with vitaminsA andB. In 1937 he told an audience at the University of Buffalo that a lack of maternal instincts is due to a deficiency in
manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial all ...
. When the rat was fed a small amount of manganese chloride, the mothering instinct returned immediately.


Health

At seven months of age, McCollum fell ill with what we know today as
scurvy Scurvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Early symptoms of deficiency include weakness, feeling tired and sore arms and legs. Without treatment, decreased red blood cells, gum disease, changes to hair, and bleeding ...
when his mother became pregnant. She weaned him on mashed potatoes and boiled milk. The boy was slowly dying, and had painful sores, bleeding gums, and swollen joints. One day while his mother was peeling apples, McCollum started to suck on the peels. When on the following day he felt a little better, she fed him more apple skins. When spring came, she gave him other fruits and vegetables. McCollum completely recovered from scurvy, but his teeth caused him trouble for the rest of his life. Finally, in 1926 he had all his teeth removed and got
dentures Dentures (also known as false teeth) are prosthetic devices constructed to replace missing teeth, and are supported by the surrounding soft and hard tissues of the oral cavity. Conventional dentures are removable ( removable partial denture o ...
. His health improved.McCollum, 1964. pp. 211–214. McCollum suffered from
diverticulitis Diverticulitis, specifically colonic diverticulitis, is a gastrointestinal disease characterized by inflammation of abnormal pouches—diverticula—which can develop in the wall of the large intestine. Symptoms typically include lower abdominal ...
, and was often in pain. He had a number of operations, and finally his descending colon was removed. Again his health improved. McCollum was blind in his left eye because of a detached retina that doctors were unable to repair. McCollum expressed the wish "that in my old age I want to keep my mind in a state of continual adventure". He got his wish by living twenty-three years in retirement, twenty-two of them in good health.


Retirement and death

After his 1944 retirement as professor emeritus, he spent ten years writing ''The History of Nutrition''; he also wrote his autobiography, ''From Kansas Farm Boy to Scientist''. McCollum donated his honoraria from prizes and from lecturing to a student loan fund at the University of Kansas that was eventually worth $40,000. In 1943 McCollum gave the American Dietetic Association, known today as the
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is a 501(c)(6) trade association in the United States. With over 112,000 members, the association claims to be the largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. It has registered dietitian n ...
, a donation that became the foundation's scholarship fund. Now the largest provider of dietetic scholarships, the foundation awards $1,500,000 over three years to about one thousand students. McCollum criticized drugstore vitamin supplements as being no better than old-time
patent medicine A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...
s. In 1947
John Lee Pratt John Lee Pratt (October 22, 1879 – December 22, 1975) was an American industrialist born on the county line of Stafford and King George County, Virginia. He received an engineering degree from the University of Virginia, entered the ranks of ...
gave $500,000 to Johns Hopkins for the study of trace inorganic elements in life. The McCollum-Pratt Institute formed, and Pratt donated another $1million. McCollum did not participate beyond giving lectures, but he selected the first director, William McElroy. In 1951 Johns Hopkins held a two-day symposium called "The Physiological Role of Certain Vitamins and Trace Elements"; fifteen scientists delivered papers and many of his students and former colleagues returned to see him. About two hundred people contributed several thousand dollars for the painting of an oil portrait of McCollum by Paul Trebilcock in 1954. The work hangs in the lobby of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives at Johns Hopkins. While working with Olaf S. Rask ten years before he retired, McCollum began to search for ways to separate specific
amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha a ...
s from protein
hydrolysate Hydrolysate refers to any product of hydrolysis. Protein hydrolysate has special application in sports medicine because its consumption allows amino acids to be absorbed by the body more rapidly than intact proteins, thus maximizing nutrient delive ...
s. When he retired, he worked on this project exclusively. He had a small laboratory at Johns Hopkins's Homewood Campus and an assistant, Mrs.Agatha Ann Rider. In retirement, he produced six papers and three patents, the last one issued to him and Rider on March15, 1960, for the purification of
glutamine Glutamine (symbol Gln or Q) is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. Its side chain is similar to that of glutamic acid, except the carboxylic acid group is replaced by an amide. It is classified as a charge-neutral ...
. In 1961 he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
.Chick, 1969. In 1965 the University of Kansas named a ten-story dormitory, McCollum Hall, after McCollum and his brother Burton. The building housed about nine hundred students for fifty years until it was demolished in 2015. Each of them sat for a portrait painted by Kansas artist Daniel MacMorris. The portraits hung side by side in the foyer. After the demolition, McCollum's portrait was moved to the School of Pharmacy, and Burton's went to the Kansas Geological Survey. One issue became especially important to him, and he wrote dozens of his friends asking what could be done about it. He thought the country was losing its
potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosphe ...
and
phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ea ...
, and he wanted to find a way to recycle them instead of throwing them in our sewage. In 1965 he and his wife traveled so he could speak at the fiftieth anniversary of the appointment of Agnes Fay Morgan to the faculty of the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. The following year, he was unable to attend the 100th anniversary of the
University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. ...
in 1966 because of physical disability. His house in Baltimore was broken up into apartments but nevertheless became a National Historic Landmark. The
American Society for Nutrition The American Society for Nutrition (ASN) is an American society for professional researchers and practitioners in the field of nutrition. ASN publishes four journals in the field of nutrition. It has been criticized for its financial ties to the ...
offers a McCollum lectureship. McCollum died on November 15, 1967, at the age of 88. Shortly before his death, he remarked: "I have had an exceptionally pleasant life and am thankful."


Posthumous controversy

In her 1994 biography of Cornelia Kennedy for the '' Journal of Nutrition'', former
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
graduate dean Patricia B. Swan writes "forgotten...are the women who worked with Elmer V. McCollum throughout his outstanding research career." In his editor's note, Thomas Jukes adds, "I would hope this is not the case." Johns Hopkins professor Richard David Semba has written extensively on vitaminA. His 2012 paper ''The Discovery of the Vitamins'' explicitly accuses McCollum of
scientific misconduct Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in the publication of professional scientific research. A '' Lancet'' review on ''Handling of Scientific Misconduct in Scandinavian countr ...
, a theme Semba explores again in his 2012 book ''The Vitamin A Story''. He believes that McCollum transferred from the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
to Johns Hopkins University under suspicion of possible
academic dishonesty Academic dishonesty, academic misconduct, academic fraud and academic integrity are related concepts that refer to various actions on the part of students that go against the expected norms of a school, university or other learning institution. D ...
. Semba cites an extraordinary 1918 letter written by Edwin B. Hart, chair of the University of Wisconsin department of agricultural chemistry, to the journal ''
Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...
''. Hart states in this letter, which was published under the title "Professional Courtesy", that a paper co-authored by McCollum and Nina Simmonds, "A Study of the Dietary Essential, Water-SolubleB, in Relation to its Solubility and Stability Towards Reagents", is actually the work of Harry Steenbock, who is mentioned only in a footnote and is thus the victim of a "gross injustice". Further, Hart says that all the records of rat feeding at Wisconsin disappeared during the change of staff. Semba accuses McCollum not only of
stealing Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some ...
the Wisconsin research notebooks, but also of
sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
, by releasing all the rats from their cages in the rat colony when he left. Semba disputes McCollum and Davis's claim to the discovery of vitaminA, which was based on their observation that the unidentified substance was "fat-soluble", for three reasons: * Carl Socin had suggested that this unknown substance was fat-soluble in 1891. * Wilhelm Stepp had shown that there was a growth factor and that it was fat-soluble in 1911. * Fat-soluble extracts of butter and egg yolk contain three vitamins: vitamins A, D, and E (all of which were so far unknown).


Books

* * * * * *


Notes


Bibliography

* * * * *


Further reading


Nutritional Biochemistry and the Discovery of Vitamins: the Work of Elmer Verner McCollum
– ''Journal of Biological Chemistry''


External links

* , including photo in 2004, at Maryland Historical Trust * {{DEFAULTSORT:McCollum, Elmer 1879 births 1967 deaths American biochemists American food writers American nutritionists American vegetarianism activists Diet food advocates Dietitians Foreign Members of the Royal Society Howard N. Potts Medal recipients Johns Hopkins University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Bourbon County, Kansas Scientists from Baltimore University of Kansas alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Vitamin researchers Yale University alumni