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Biographical Article

Milton Leonard Scott (1915–2001)

Cornell University, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Ithaca, NY 14853

¹ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mcn2{at}cornell.edu.

The discovery of the essential vitamins and inorganic elements marked an exciting and productive period in the history of nutritional science. Nowhere was the application of these discoveries more rapid than in the field of poultry husbandry. The rise of the modern poultry industry closely parallels the discovery of essential nutrients that allowed the intensive raising of chickens, turkeys and ducks, as well as the intensification of egg production. Milton L. Scott was one of the chief scientists of this era, who not only contributed to the application of nutrition knowledge, but participated in the generation of basic nutrition information important to the field of nutrition.

View larger version (87K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Milton Leonard Scott Photo courtesy of Cornell University Archives

Scott was appointed research associate in the Department of Poultry Husbandry in 1945, assistant professor in 1946, associate professor in 1948 and professor in 1953. He spent the rest of his academic career at Cornell, retiring in 1979. The faculty of the nutrition division in the Department of Poultry Husbandry at Cornell in the 1940s and 1950s consisted of L. C. Norris, G. F. Heuser, M. L. Scott, and F. W. Hill. This was an exceptionally productive group who contributed much to knowledge of basic nutrients and to the application of nutritional knowledge to the production of poultry. Scott was particularly interested in identifying constituents of natural feedstuffs that could prevent nutritional disorders in poultry. Young rapidly growing chicks and turkeys are especially susceptible to nutritional deficiencies when fed semipurified diets.

In the 1930s, Norris had discovered the requirement of manganese and riboflavin for growing chicks. The organic factors required for anemia prevention in chicks turned out to be folic acid and Scott, along with Norris and his colleagues, studied the folic acid needs of chickens in detail. The Cornell group was also actively pursuing identification of vitamin B-12 (animal protein factor) prior to isolation of the vitamin by the Merck Sharpe and Dohme Laboratories in the United States and the Glaxo Laboratories in England.

Scott was one of the early investigators to study the nutritional needs of turkeys. He determined that niacin and vitamin E were important in the prevention of an enlarged hock disorder that was severely limiting intensive large-scale production of turkeys. He found that duck rations required additional niacin to prevent a bowed leg disorder that was limiting commercial production. His nutritional studies with ducks were critical to the growth of the Long Island duck industry. Similarly, he carried out studies with pheasants at the New York State game farm in Ithaca that led to recommendations for nutrient content of rations for raising game birds throughout the US. He also was knowledgeable about the nutrition of fish and he provided guidance to many in the developing fish farming industry.

In the mid 1950s, Scott began to study a vitamin E-like activity found in brewers yeast. He showed that brewers yeast would prevent an edema (exudative diathesis) in chicks fed diets containing large amounts of torula yeast. This condition was also prevented by dietary vitamin E. His group also found that under certain conditions, chicks would show clinical signs of enceplalomalacia, exudative diathesis and muscular dystrophy in response to vitamin E deficiency, but brewers yeast would prevent the exudative diathesis and methionine could prevent the muscular dystrophy. Several antioxidants were also effective in preventing encephalomalacia but were less effective against other vitamin E deficiency signs. Vitamin E would protect against all three conditions. Scott began a collaboration with Klaus Schwartz at the National Institutes of Health who was working to isolate a factor (factor 3) found in brewers yeast that prevented liver necrosis in rats. The liver necrosis was also prevented by vitamin E. Schwartz would send Scott concentrates of factor 3 for study with chicks and they were effective against exudative diathesis. Eventually Schwartz sent Scott three vials of tiny amounts of material, which when tested, prevented the exudative diathesis in chicks. The vials contained sodium selenite, selenomethionine and elemental selenium (1). This discovery was carried out at about the same time that Patterson and Stockstad (2) found, using a completely different approach, that selenium would prevent exudative diathesis in chicks.

The discovery of the nutritional importance of selenium led to a series of studies by Scott and his students on selenium requirements of chickens and turkeys under a variety of conditions. He studied the accumulation of selenium in tissues and in eggs when supplied in a variety of chemical forms. He investigated the availability of selenium from various feedstuffs. He helped show that selenium deficiency occurred in field conditions of commercial poultry production, when feed ingredients came from areas where soils were low in selenium. Scott and his students helped sort out the complex relationship between selenium, vitamin E, antioxidants and the sulfur amino acids, methionine and cystine. His work was largely responsible for gaining FDA approval of selenium additions to commercial poultry rations.

In 1969 Scott and his students were able to produce a selenium deficiency under conditions in which vitamin E was not effective, thus confirming its status as a nutrient in its own right (3). Following the reports that selenium was a component of glutathione peroxidase, his laboratory examined the level of this enzyme in the tissues of chicks that were fed diets deficient or adequate in selenium. They studied the relationship of diet composition to selenium and vitamin E requirements and showed that levels of unsaturated fatty acids in the diet had a major influence on vitamin E and selenium requirements.

Scott and his students examined a wide variety of other problems that influenced the production of poultry. The concern of the potential effects of DDT and PCB’s on egg shells of wild birds led to studies on the effect of these environmental pollutants on egg shell formation in laying hens. Scott examined various forms of calcium as they affected egg shell strength in hens. He found that calcium fed in particulate form as opposed to powdered limestone would allow sufficient consumption of calcium to allow good egg shell formation. This practice is still followed in the poultry industry. He spent several months in the Philippines as part of a Cornell program to aid the graduate program of the College of Agriculture at Los Banos. This experience helped him gain appreciation of the international challenges in poultry production.

Probably no other person was in as much demand to provide advice to the poultry industry world-wide as was Milton Scott prior to and for many years after his retirement. He and his wife Dorothy traveled throughout the world, consulting, participating in conferences and seminars, or advising international agencies. His enthusiasm and warmth enlivened his lectures and presentations.

Scott worked on virtually all of the various nutrients at one time or another in his active research career. He published over 200 peer-reviewed papers or book chapters and numerous abstracts of papers presented at scientific meetings. He was a prolific contributor to trade publications associated with the poultry industry. In 1969 he published, along with M. C. Nesheim and R. J. Young, Nutrition of the Chicken which became the basic text and reference book for poultry nutrition for the next 25 years. Two more editions of the book were published in 1976 and in 1982.

After his formal retirement from Cornell, he wrote Nutrition of the Turkey in 1987 and Nutrition and Management of Ducks with William F. Dean in 1991. These books were published and distributed by his own publishing company. He also used his experience in comparative nutrition to publish The Nutrition of Humans and Selected Animal Species in 1986. This book makes suggestions as to principles for use in formulating diets for many species of captive animals. Scott spent some time in the 1970s working with the San Diego zoo on nutrition problems of exotic mammals and birds.

Scott received an impressive variety of honors in recognition of his work. He received the American Feed Manufacturers Award, the National Turkey Federation Award, the Distillers Feed Research Council Award, the New York Farmers Award for Contributions to Applied Animal Nutrition, the Borden Award from both the Poultry Science association and the American Institute of Nutrition, and the Klaus Schwartz Commemorative Medal for trace mineral research. He was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Nutritional Sciences in 1986. Cornell University awarded him a Jacob Gould Schurman Chair, a distinguished chair named for Cornell’s third president. He served as chair of the Department of Poultry Science for three years before his retirement from Cornell in 1979.

He was an advisor to more than 35 graduate students, many of whom became leaders in areas of research, not only in animal nutrition but also in many other fields. He was a stimulating research advisor who kept challenging his students with ideas. His students had freedom to explore their ideas and approaches to a research problem. He taught a graduate course in vitamins and minerals for the nutrition students across campus. It was enlivened by his first hand knowledge of the excitement of the discovery of the essentiality of these nutrients and the competition between laboratories for identification and structure determination.

Along with his impressive professional achievements, Milton Scott had a full and active personal life. His warm and friendly personality made him extremely well liked. He was an accomplished bridge player, he played golf, and he loved fishing. He would take many fishing trips with his colleagues and students and usually ended up with the most fish. He enjoyed teaching his students the art of fishing. He brought his scientific background to the testing of various fishing lures. His innate optimism made him believe that the next cast would catch the "big one," even after a long day of unproductive fishing. This optimism carried over into all aspects of his life. Dorothy and Milt made their home a warm and friendly place to entertain students and campus visitors. He enjoyed the travel associated with his consulting activities and he used these trips to explore many parts of the world. He was an accomplished photographer and he loved to talk about his trips and show his slides of the things he had seen.

He met his wife, Dorothy Jaeger, at a company picnic while he was working for the GLF laboratories in Buffalo. They had two daughters, Grace Saroka and June Kopald. He doted on his seven grandchildren and eight great grandchildren and he shared his love of travel and fishing with them. He was handicapped by illness the last few years of his life, but he kept active and continued to write. He died on July 11, 2001 after a long battle with cancer. With his passing, the nutrition community lost another link to the golden age of nutrient discovery.

	ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 
In the preparation of this manuscript, helpful information was obtained from Nonie Saroka, Richard Austic and Roland Leach. Their assistance is gratefully acknowledged.

Manuscript received 26 September 2003.

	LITERATURE CITED

TOP LITERATURE CITED

 

1. Schwartz, K., Bieri, J. G., Briggs, G. M. & Scott, M. L. (1957) Prevention of exudative diathesis in chicks by factor 3 and selenium. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 95:621-625.

2. Patterson, E. L., Milstrey, R. & Stokstad, E.L.R. (1957) Effect of selenium in preventing exudative diathesis in chicks. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 95:617-620.

3. Thompson, J. N. & Scott, M. L. (1969) The role of selenium in the nutrition of the chick. J. Nutr. 97:335-342.

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