Re: [CH] The quasi-compleat Wilbur L. Scoville biography (LONG!!)

Jim Nelson (jmnelson@winfirst.com)
Fri, 22 Nov 2002 20:37:39 -0800 

Captain Apathy and any odd ships at sea.
Born In 1865 is fine but did anyone find the Month and year of birth?  

If that date is forever lost perhaps we could decide by consensus on an 
"official"  holiday in the Chile head year during a month with no 
pre-existing three day weekend or other holiday.  First Monday  in . . . 
 I remain convinced that this is far to good a date for a chilehead 
party or a hot luck to be lost in the mist of time.

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
>