The Spies Nutrition Clinic operated out of the Hillman Hospital from 1936 to the time of Dr. Spies' death in 1960. Dr. James McLester, physician-in-chief of Hillman Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, invited Dr. Spies to the city in 1935 to test the Goldberger diet on local pellagrins. Dr. Spies' experiments in Birmingham proved successful, and he remained in Birmingham. He next used his clinic to test nicotinic acid as a treatment of pellagra. These studies led to the discovery that many pellagrins were suffering from multiple vitamin deficiencies. With his successes, Dr. Spies and his clinic became more prominent. This enabled him to support the clinic entirely on private donations. During this time, Dr. Spies also served with the University of Cincinnati and later with Northwestern University Medical School. During World War II, he served as a consultant to the Secretary of War and sought to find remedies for tropical diseases. His studies on the use of folic acid to cure tropical sprue proved groundbreaking. After the war, the clinic conducted studies sponsored by the American Dry Institute to determine the value of dry milk supplements on impoverished children in rural Alabama. The success of these studies earned Spies additional support. Spies died of cancer in New York City in 1960 resulting in the closure of his clinic later that same year.
From the description of Spies Nutrition Clinic Collection 1937-1967. (Mervyn H. Sterne Library - UAB). WorldCat record id: 31038257
