Rats, fats, and history.

In 1883 a Department of Agricultural Chemistry was founded at the University of Wisconsin in the city of Madison. One hundred years later seems a fitting time to look back, to gain some perspective on the fortunes of that academic undertaking. It is in looking back that I discern an intriguing wave in the tide of time. Although in the first 30 years there was much of interest, I shall leave that span to others. In 1913 the department gained a new sense of presence, as bricks and mortar were laid to form what is now known as the "old building." The department's title, "Agricultural Chemistry," was inscribed in the stone lintel over the entrance door, and is found there still, even though, since 1938, the department's title has been "Biochemistry." I mention these facts with no hope of startling anyone, for they are well known, but rather to establish the time frame for that special segment of the history of the department, that wave that I think I have discerned and that I wish to address. It is my thesis that 1913, the year the lintel was set, was a watershed year for agricultural chemistry, for the newly emerging sciences of human and animal nutrition, and for the ambitions of a remarkable group of chemists in the department at that time. The key discovery that marks this watershed year was the recognition of what came to be known as the fat-soluble vitamins. The first of these was vitamin A. What I now propose is to delineate, as best I can, the historical and philosophical roots of this discovery, and try to understand thereby why the fat-soluble vitamins were first discovered in Madison; why it was in 1913; and how the people who did it came to do it just then.