The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s (WSLH) early history is recounted in an article in the summer 2016 issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History.
The article focuses on how changing beliefs about water and public health influenced the founding of the state’s public health laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1903.
For more than 100 years, WSLH scientists and staff have worked to protect the people and environment of Wisconsin – putting the Wisconsin Idea into action every day.
“… Medical societies, Wisconsin industries, and communities alike acknowledged the urgent demand for a state hygiene laboratory.
“After some deliberation, the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus became the decided location for the state hygiene laboratory. Prior to establishment, a few key figures aided in making the university an ideal site. Bacteriological methodology had already been established at the university with Edward A. Birge and Harry L. Russell.44 Technically the only professor in the biology department upon his arrival in 1875, Birge organized a course in bacteriology for students.45 Russell became the first official appointment in bacteriology in 1893, which was established as a subdiscipline in the Department of Agriculture.46 Birge became the president of the university twice, and Russell was one of two men to persuade the state legislature to establish the Wisconsin State Hygiene Laboratory.47
“Dr. Cornelius A. Harper, Wisconsin’s first State Board of Health secretary and later state health officer, became Russell’s partner in efforts to persuade the legislature to allocate funding for a hygiene laboratory.48 Russell and Birge had studied directly under Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur in Europe, and Harper and Russell were students of Birge during their careers at the University of Wisconsin.49 This unique triangle of men, fluent in the new language of bacteriology and closely tied to public health in Wisconsin, positioned the laboratory for future growth. …”
“Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene: Changing Beliefs on Water and Public Health“, by Anna W. Davis,
Wisconsin Magazine of History Summer 2016