In nutrition and the medical sciences, as much as anywhere else in science, we occasionally see a great leap forward when an investigator with especially well developed powers of insight grapples with a problem and sees things that were under everyone's nose but were otherwise out of sight. An excellent example of such a person is the late Denis Burkitt, who one of us (NT) had the great fortune to know and collaborate with. Burkitt carried out an epidemiological study in Africa into the geographical distribution of a type of cancer common in children. This cancer is now known as Burkitt's lymphoma. Although the cancer was there for anyone to see, it was Burkitt who put one and one together.
Quite remarkably, he did this using the resources available in Africa in the 1950s on a grant worth under $ 1000 in today's money. This work led to the identification of the EpsteinBarr virus. In collaboration with Hugh Trowell and others, Burkitt later went on to establish the vital importance to health of dietary fiber and, hand in hand with this, developed the concept of Western disease. Again, this was done using little more than great perceptive powers and a shoestring budget. Is the age of the great leap forward behind us? We doubt that very much. Buried in the next section, perhaps, are the seeds of one or two great leaps forward.
