Dr. Terry Sharer, a former curator of agriculture and medicine at the American History Museum at the Smithsonian Institute came to speak to the college community at a lunch meeting. Dr. Sharer began the lecture about what led him into history and eventually medicine.  He was brought up in Maryland and was fascinated with a Union soldier who would sit on his family porch in his GAR uniform.  The gentleman was deaf and blind but integrated Dr Sharer.  

       Dr. Sharer started his career with the Smithsonian as an agriculture curator but always had an interest in medicine.  His mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and he really wanted to find more about the disease and a possible cure.  He went to San Diego and spoke to a leading expect on the subject who was no help but by then he was too far into medicine to go back.  One of the things he was able to acquire for the Institute was a vial of the HeLa cells.  These cells were from Henrietta Lacks who was diagnosed with cervical cancer.  The amazing thing about these cells that they continued to grow long after her death.  They are the most sort after cells and were used in the polio vaccination research.  

       One of the things that intrigued Dr Sharer were Nobel laureates.  Dr Sharer was able to interview 27 laureates.  One of those was Dr Linus Pauling who developed the helix for DNA.  He also won two prizes one for chemistry and one that was the peace prize.  He spoke about DA Henderson who eradicated smallpox through the bribing of witch doctors.  The witch doctors gave the patients with smallpox the live smallpox virus instead of the cowpox virus which they were giving patients. 

        The thing that I found the most interested was the discussion on maple syrup urine disease.  This disease is found 1 in 185,000 in the general population, mostly in China because of its high population but in the Amish and Mennonites, the number is much lower. 1 in 271 for the Graft able Congress in the Amish and 1 in 3000 in Old Order Mennonites.  The reason for the number is the founder effect and the inbreeding of the communities.  The population are descended from two people in Switzerland and the population marries between each other.  The disease can be easily cured through the removal of certain ingredients in formula.  It given to the baby for two years, it will be highly effective.  It not the baby will die and be mentally retarded.  The babies with the disease have a strong smell of maple syrup in their urine two to three days after birth.  He spoke of a hospital that it not far in the community where before the population had to travel to Philadelphia by horse and buggy. These are just a few things that Dr Sharer spoke about but I am sure that he could it he wanted to give an all day lecture about what he has done.