In 1958, Jim Conrad, a Mennonite from Oregon, volunteered to eat the same solid foods every day for several weeks, then nothing but corn oil and skim milk for nine weeks, then a combination of coconut oil and skim milk for six weeks, and finally, fish oil and skim milk for two weeks - all in the name of biomedical science. It's the kind of experience that might turn people off of medicine. But in this case, it helped confirm Conrad's decision to become a physician.
Last Fall, at Conrad's invitation, 25 other Mennonites and Brethren sat around long tables in the medical boardroom of the National Institutes of Health's new Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., for an unusual reunion: Like Conrad, they had served as normal controls in NIH studies conducted between 1955 and 1970. On this day, the volunteers shared stories about strange young-adult experiences, toured the new ...
