Harvey Washington Wiley

Harvey Washington Wiley (October 18, 1844 – June 30, 1930) was an American physician and chemist who advocated successfully for the passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and subsequently worked at the Good Housekeeping Institute laboratories. He was the first commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration. Wiley's advocacy for stricter food and drug regulations indirectly contributed to Coca-Cola's decision to remove cocaine from its formula in the early 20th century. This move addressed public health concerns but has drawn modern criticism for its impact on drug policy perceptions.

In 1904, Wiley was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1910, he was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute.

Early life and career

Wiley was born on October 18, 1844, in a log farmhouse in Republican Township, in Jefferson County, Indiana, the son of a lay Presbyterian preacher and farmer, Preston Pritchard Wiley and Lucinda Maxwell. 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. He returned to Hanover in 1865, majored in the humanities and was a top graduate (A.B.) in 1867. Wiley earned his M.D. from Indiana Medical College in 1871. He was professor of Greek and Latin at Butler College, Indianapolis, 1868–70.