IV. A Brief History of the Development of Nutrition
Early scientific studies of nutrition: The 19th Century
In the early 19th century crop failures (wet weather) forced a study of how to replace meat in the diet. The need for dietary protein was recognized by this time, and by the 1860's in England the first government dietary standard was established on the basis of experimental observation for energy and protein requirements (3000 Cal and 80 g, respectively).
- This was the work of Edward Smith.
- Smith was a Wesleyan, which was a serious barrier to advancement in those days, when only Church of England members could get into Oxford or Cambridge. He went to what was to become Queens College of the Univeresity of London system; dissenters were allowed there.
- His main driving force was social reform, not scientific curiosity. He sought and got an appointment on the Poor Law Board, and did experiments to show, for example, that Liebig (a respected physiologist) was wrong in saying energy for muscular work comes from protein alone.
- His work on minimum requirements came from a need to know how to relieve the starving poor during the Cotton Famine of 1862 in Lancashire.
History -- The cotton famine was caused by the loss of raw materials for the Lancashire cotton mills during the Civil War in the United States, a major cotton-producing nation. Mill workers were laid off, and they tended to starve. Note 2 in this section of a British document on poor law statistics refers to it.