FDA biochemist Mattie Rae Spivey Fox, Ph. D. (1923-1988) and her colleagues in nutritional analysis at the Bureau of Foods made a number of important contributions to the understanding of trace nutrients, toxic elements, and their role in the diet as a result of research they conducted using Japanese quail. But their research wouldn’t have been nearly as successful without the help of this Pertersime incubator, where their quail eggs were hatched.

Japanese quail offered scientists many advantages over other animals traditionally used in nutritional research: they grow much more rapidly; they are very sensitive to nutritional deficiencies; they begin laying eggs much sooner than chickens; and because of their small size, they are much more economical to maintain. Within just a year, five generations of the quail can be hatched and matured. Beginning in 1966, Spivey Fox and her group used redwood incubators manufactured by the Petersime firm - to help them do just that. Petersime used California redwood to prevent warping, a concern due to the moist environmental requirements of hatching eggs.

The Spivey Fox team investigated the physiological functions of essential elements such as chromium, zinc, iron, and manganese, and how certain environmental contaminants such as cadmium, interfere with these elements helped inform FDA’s responsibility for setting standards on the fortification of certain foods with essential elements. Like many FDA scientists before and since, Spivey Fox and her colleagues made use of the best science available in their product approval deliberations and other regulatory challenges as they strived to fulfill FDA’s mission to protect and promote the public health.

Spivey Fox retired from the FDA in 1985, but one of the redwood incubators she used is on display near the front entrance of FDA’s headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. The preservation of the artifact was due to the quick action of an agency scientist (still working at FDA), who recognized the historical value of this remarkable piece of equipment and retrieved it at the last possible moment before it was “retired” to an uncertain future, thereby ensuring that it remained a part of the invaluable collection in FDA’s history vault.