Editing Harvey Washington Wiley (section)

==Early life and career==
[[File:Dr Harvey Wiley c.1905.jpg|thumb|300px|Dr Harvey Wiley c.1905]]
Wiley was born on October 18, 1844, in a log farmhouse in [[Republican Township, Jefferson County, Indiana|Republican Township]], in [[Jefferson County, Indiana]], the son of a lay Presbyterian preacher and farmer, Preston Pritchard Wiley and Lucinda Maxwell.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hilts |first=Philip J. |date=2003-04-27 |title='Protecting America's Health' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/books/chapters/protecting-americas-health.html |access-date=2023-03-16 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The sixth of seven children, Wiley was raised on a 125-acre farm with a creek that emptied into the [[Wabash River]], a tributary of the [[Ohio River]]. Wiley's parents were conductors on the [[Underground Railroad]] as the southernmost point in Indiana, across the river from slave-owning Kentucky.

He enrolled in nearby [[Hanover College]] in 1863 and studied for about one year until he enlisted with the [[Union Army]] in 1864, during the American Civil War. He finished the war as a corporal in Company I of the 137th Indiana Infantry Regiment.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Page|first1=Walter Hines|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_OvGW_6b3EC&q=137th+indiana+wiley&pg=PA30|title=The World's Work|last2=Page|first2=Arthur Wilson|date=1912|publisher=Doubleday, Page & Company|pages=30|language=en}}</ref> He returned to Hanover in 1865, majored in the humanities and was a top graduate (A.B.) in 1867. Wiley earned his [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]] from [[Indiana University School of Medicine|Indiana Medical College]] in 1871. He was professor of Greek and Latin at [[Butler University|Butler College]], [[Indianapolis]], 1868–70.<ref name="eb">{{Cite EB1922|wstitle=Wiley, Harvey Washington}}</ref>

After earning his medical degree Wiley taught chemistry at the Medical College, where he led Indiana's first laboratory course in chemistry beginning in 1873. At [[Harvard University]], he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1873 after only a few months of intense effort. He then accepted a faculty position in chemistry at [[Purdue University]], which held its first classes in 1874. He was also appointed state chemist of Indiana.

In 1878, Wiley went to Germany where he attended the lectures of [[August Wilhelm von Hofmann]]—the celebrated German discoverer of organic tar derivatives like [[aniline]]. While there, Wiley was elected to the prestigious [[German Chemical Society]] founded by Hofmann. Wiley spent most of his time in the Imperial Food Laboratory in Bismarck working with Eugene Sell, mastering the use of the [[polariscope]] and studying sugar chemistry. Upon his return to Purdue, Wiley was asked by the Indiana State Board of Health to analyze the sugars and syrups on sale in the state to detect any adulteration. He spent his last years at Purdue studying [[sorghum]] culture and sugar chemistry, working to help develop a strong domestic [[sugar industry]]. His first published paper in 1881 discussed the adulteration of sugar with [[glucose]].

Wiley commissioned a medical journalist, Wedderburn, to write out his findings in a manner understandable to public and politicians. Areas of concern included Embalmed Milk (adding formaldehyde to milk); adding [[copper sulfate]] to tinned French beans to make them green etc. These problems were mainly associated with getting food to large city populations.

The [[embalmed beef]] scandal relating to the troop rations in the American-Cuban war of 1898 finally brought the industry to the public interest.