Marion Dorset, who was a brilliant student in high school, did so well that he was admitted to the University of Tennessee as a sophomore. He attended UT from 1890 to 1893, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry. Upon graduation, Dorset enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania as a medical student, but in 1894, he accepted a job as assistant chemist in the Bureau of Animal Industry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While employed, he continued his medical studies at George Washington University and received the M.D. degree in 1896.
Dorset's entire career was spent in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was made Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry in 1896, and from 1904 until his death, he was Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry.
Dorset's most significant work was in discovering the cause and cure for hog cholera, a disease that had been decimating the hog population of the United States with losses to farmers estimated at between $65 and $100 million a year. In addition, he developed an egg medium for the culture of the tubercle bacillus and invented the purple meat inspection stamp affixed to meat to show that it has been U.S. Government inspected.
Dr. Dorset was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1909 and was elected to the Tennessee Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1951. He died July 14, 1935.
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