Harriette Chick at work in the 1930s. Image from the Wellcome Library.
Dr. Harriette Chick (1875 – 1977) was a nutritionist best known for her research on vitamins and rickets.
After qualifying as doctor of science in 1904 she applied to work at the Lister Institute . Apparently, a few members of staff objected to her appointment on the grounds that she was a woman but, happily, the director, Charles Martin, appointed her anyway. She worked there for over 50 years.
Harriette Chick’s main contribution was to the emerging science of nutrition. In the wake of the First World War she led a research team to Vienna. The War had resulted in food shortages and the population was severely malnourished. Local doctors had noted an increase in rickets among children and similar bone deformities in adults. At the time it was generally thought that rickets was an infectious disease. The research team, on the other hand, suspected that the problem was due to poor nutrition.
Working with the hospital staff Harriette’s team made changes to the patients’ diets and recorded the results. The research demonstrated that rickets was caused by dietary deficiencies, specifically a lack of vitamin D. The findings were published in 1923 as Studies of Rickets in Vienna. Her notes from this time are held by the Wellcome Library. They are scientific but they are also very human. I especially like her recipe for “anchovy paste”. It contains cod liver oil and marmite rather than anchovies but it would have contain plenty of vitamin D, which is what helped to fix the bendy bones of the people in Vienna.
On her return to Britain Harriette became the head of a new department of nutrition at the Lister Institute. She never married and lived to the ripe old age of 102.
foodheroesandheroines 