1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wiley, Harvey Washington

WILEY, HARVEY WASHINGTON (1844-       ), American chemist, was born in Kent, Ind., Oct. 18 1844. He was educated at Hanover (Ind.) College (A.B.1867; A.M.1870), Indiana Medical College (M.D.1871), and Harvard (B.S.1873). He was professor of Greek and Latin at Butler College, Indianapolis, (1868-70); state chemist of Indiana and professor of Chemistry at Purdue University (1874-83); and chief chemist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1883-1912). He was elected president of the American Chemical Society in 1893, and from 1899 was professor of Agricultural Chemistry at the George Washington University. He frequently represented the United States in scientific meetings abroad. He was specially interested in preventing food adulteration, and antagonized many food packers by opposing the use of benzoate of soda as a preservative. In 1911 his enemies urged his dismissal from the Department of Agriculture on the technical charge that an expert in his department had received recompense exceeding the legal rate. Later in the year President Taft wrote a letter wholly exonerating Dr. Wiley, but failed to take the obviously proper steps to remove from the Department a hostile member, with whom Dr. Wiley had to come into constant contact. Accordingly, Dr. Wiley resigned in 1912. Henceforth, he devoted himself largely to the cause of pure food by lecturing and writing.

His numerous publications include The Sugar Industry of the United States (1885); Principles and Practice of Agricultural Analysis (1894-7; revised edition, 1906-14); Foods and Their Adulterations (1907; third edition, 1917); Influence of Food Preservatives and Artificial Colors on Digestion and Health (1904-7, with several collaborators); 1001 Tests of Foods, Beverages, and Toilet Accessories, Good and Otherwise (1914); The Lure of the Land (1915), and Beverages and Their Adulteration (1919). He also edited a series of Health Readers for Schools in 1919.