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

Steve M Duddy (timetiles@icon.co.za)
Fri, 22 Nov 2002 14:15:20 +0200 

I think we should commemorate that first noble savage from a long line of
noble savages that first took a bite from the fruit of El Grande' and
decided.... hmmm, that be goodums.

Never having had anything like it before, of course he ate another to make
sure it wasn't, like, an anomaly (a word he'd hardly be able to put into
gruntish, so to speak... but, he knew what he meant.).  "Yes", he said to
himself... "Yummy", so he took a bunch home to the family.  The Wife of
course took a taste and thought, "Yeah, right", and being a fine upstanding
(one of the recently up-standing women, I might add) and club-fearing Woman
of her time, attempted to do something with it.  She carefully stuck a clump
of them onto a rock along with some odds and ends, and created (for the
first time) a table center-piece, oblivious of the fact that a table at this
stage would have offset it nicely.  Hubby came home after the next hunting
excursion and was roaringly dismayed.  "No, Woman! I've eaten of this berry
and it be something to be consumed!".  The Woman of course thought, "Yeah,
right", and being a fine -yada, yada, yada, and intelligent woman, decided
(after another taste of her own, of course) that perhaps a delaying tactic
might be appropriate.  After all, anything that is so bright red and so
pungent as to make men weep, might not make a pantry staple, although it
could be put to good use as a medicine.  After Hubby's behavior last night,
a colonic cleanser does come to her mind. (remember, he hunts, she
gathers!).  So... Thinking "delaying, and preserving"... she goes down to
the Aviary on the Island and collects the guano salts that have accumulated
near the stream.

And the rest is (Ancient) History....

Happy Thanksgiving to the Yanks,

Steve
Wilderness
South Africa






---- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Nelson" <jmnelson@winfirst.com>
To: "Chile Heads Post" <Chile-Heads@globalgarden.com>
Sent: 23 November 2002 06:37
Subject: Re: [CH] The quasi-compleat Wilbur L. Scoville biography (LONG!!)


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
>
>
>
>
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