Phoebe Judge

It wasn't the first time this had happened.

In 1901, Harvey Wiley asked Congress for the funds to do something that hadn't been done before, to systematically test some of these food additives on human subjects.

He called his experiment the Hygienic Table Trials, but newspapers started calling it the Poison Squad Experiments, after the Volunteers.

The Department of Agriculture received lots of applications.

One eager volunteer wrote, Dear sir, I have a stomach that can stand anything.

I have a stomach that will surprise you.

Harvey Wiley had a test kitchen and a dining room built in the basement of the Department of Agriculture.

He set up two round tables with white tablecloths in the dining room.

Six volunteers would sit at each table.

They would all eat at the same time.

But at one of the tables, they would be having food laced with something that could be poisonous.

Meals would be served on a strict schedule, breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch at noon, dinner at 5.30.

The volunteers took an oath not to eat or drink anything outside of the dining room, except water, which they would measure out and report to Wiley.

If they were hungry, they had to wait.

Before each meal, they would be weighed, have their temperature taken, and have their pulse rate recorded.

After meals, they had to write down every single thing they ate or drank and exactly how much.

Doctors would examine them twice a week.

They had to carry around bags issued by the USDA to collect any waste products so that they could be analyzed later.

And they were told to be on their best behavior in general, quote, to pursue their ordinary vocations without any excesses and to take their ordinary hours of sleep.

Each of the volunteers signed a waiver, releasing the government from any responsibility if they became very sick or died.