Re: [CH] The quasi-compleat Wilbur L. Scoville biography (LONG!!)
Beth (beth@bayoutraders.com)
Thu, 21 Nov 2002 19:54:37 -0600
Captain:
Thanks for researching and posting this information. I was alway curious but not
curious enough to pursue it.
Wonder if Warner Lambert Parke-Davis would be willing to relinguish anything.
Beth in Texas
Captain Apathy wrote:
> Who was Wilbur Scoville? No clue.
>
> So why, of all the thousands of hits you'll get from typing "Scoville" into
> any common search engine, did I never find any of this? This took more digging
> than I expected. Answer: Search engines are companies and companies need
> money. Free education? Go buy some hot sauce from these sponsor links
> instead!! Ok don't buy; just click-through. //rant off
>
> Ah well, I feel better. Here's what I've tracked down so far. I'm running into
> dead ends and need assistance. Share what you gots.
>
> CA
> ---
>
> He was born in 1865. He died. Really. In 1942. Whoo. I don't know where he was
> born, nor where/how he shuffled off.
>
> Parke Davis was founded in a Detroit drugstore in 1866 and they built the
> world's first pharmacological research labratory in 1902. And hired many an
> obsessed scientist to help figure out fun things like narcotics development.
>
> The Way-Back Machine: 1912 is still "wild, wild west", people gawk at dem rich
> folk with automobiles, the NY Times just put up a huge electronic bulletin
> board in Times Square, and Coca-Cola costs 5ยข but doesn't "relieve fatigue"
> like it used to. The Roosevelt / Taft / Wilson presidential election, and of
> course - the Titanic sinks.
>
> (I don't know if/where he went to school or when he joined Parke Davis.)
>
> Scoville worked at Parke Davis during an interesting time, like when they were
> marketing many types of refined cocaine and cannabis extracts. Competitor
> Bayer's big product at the time was heroin cough syrup. (and Merck is
> producing cocaine by the ton.) Ah, medicine and science! This has nothing to
> do with Scoville other than to say, this is probably the perfect time to
> subject people to capsaicin-induced pain and then question them about it.
>
> Scoville won two awards from the American Pharmaceutical Association (APhA) -
> in 1922 he was awarded the Ebert Prize and in 1929 the Remington Honor Medal.
> Coincidentally the Ebert Prize is given to "...recognize the author(s) of the
> best report of original investigation of a medicinal substance..."
>
> He won APhA's top award in 1929, he also received an honary Doctor of Science
> from Columbia University that same year. I'm assuming it was for the Art of
> Compounding and not the S.O.T. but Parke Davis Co was spitting out patents and
> products even faster than the other 4 big drug companies.
>
> "The Art of Compounding" was a hugely popular work, first published in 1895
> and was a pharmacological reference until at least 1960 (8+ editions). He
> completely re-wrote a Harry Beckwith book in it's 4th revision "How To Get
> Registered: Home Study for Pharmaceutical Students" in 1909. And, he did
> another book called "Extracts & Perfumes" containing hundreds of
> formulations... after all, he understands the art of compounding. :-)
> (Scholarly type rare book stores can still locate these originals.)
>
> What makes this quasi-compleat is that I cannot find data to substantiate the
> 1912 date, the original research papers, what building he worked in, his
> family life, etc... Then again with 1914 bringing large-scale death and
> destruction worldwide... I'm sure with a bit more research we could track his
> parents and immediate family, but I'm running out of resources. (Brittanica,
> Groliers, World Book, etc have no mention of him.)
>
> That's the point; he's unknown because it wasn't important to the whole
> world... even for us he didn't exist but for this one act. People were more
> interested in the new inventions of the times - and war. Categorizing the heat
> levels of a plant no one eats? Nobody cared. And the Art of Compounding, well,
> you'd have to be a geeky apothecary type to know or care - back then that
> would probably be larger than chile geeks.
>
> Photos? One. This is the only one I have found so far. It resides at the
> National Library of Medicine's History of Medicine Division. Copyright
> compliance is your deal. (Almost every medical and scientific book of that
> time was printed by P. Blakiston's Son & Co. out of Philadelphia, PA - good
> luck!)
>
> http://wwwihm.nlm.nih.gov/ihm/images/B/22/911.jpg
>
> If you have any additional data (or corrections) please email or post
> publically.
>
> Pods away,
> CA
>
> ----------
> REFERENCES
> ----------
>
> Library of Congress
> Historical Collections of the National Digital Library
> National Archives and Records Administration
> University of Michigan NOTIS database
> The College of Pharmacy at Washington State University
> National Library of Medicine
> Columbia University Ceremonies Archive
> Michigan State Historic Preservation Office
> American Pharmaceutical Association
> University of Massachusetts Medical School ENDEAVOR
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! News - Today's headlines
> http://news.yahoo.com