A Guide to the Melvin J. Fregly Papers Finding aid prepared by John R. Nemmers University of Florida Smathers Libraries - Special and Area Studies Collections June 2005

Biographical/Historical Note

Physiologist, educator. Melvin J. Fregly was born in Patton, Pennsylvania, on May 26, 1925. He was educated in Patton public schools and graduated valedictorian of his 1943 class at Patton High School. Following graduation, he was inducted into the U.S. Army and served for the next three years in the Southeast Pacific Theater during World War II, including New Guinea, the Philippine Islands, and Japan.

Following military service, Fregly enrolled at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biology in 1949. He received his Ph.D. in Physiology in 1952 from the University of Rochester in New York. He accepted a position as Instructor in Physiology at Harvard Medical School and remained in the position until 1956, at which time he was appointed Assistant Professor of Physiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Fregly was promoted to Associate Professor in 1960 and to Professor in 1965. He served as Acting Chair of the Department of Physiology for one academic year (1964-1965), and from 1967 until 1971 he served as Assistant Dean for Graduation Education at the College of Medicine. In 1979, the University of Florida honored him with the title of Graduate Research Professor.

His primary area of research was the endocrinological and nutritional aspects of hypertension (high blood pressure), body temperature regulation, behavior, and fluid and electrolyte balance. Several of his studies investigated certain factors, such as catecholamines or chronic ingestion of oral contraceptives, which might induce hypertension. Other experiments focused on those agents, such as tryptophan, which might protect against the development of hypertension. Another major research area examined behavior, specifically the preference for salt, the mechanisms controlling salt appetite, and excessive ingestion of salt that might lead to hypertension. His studies in this area focused on the adrenal gland and its hormone, aldosterone, as well as the hormone, angiotensin II. Related research activities included thirst and drinking, altitude, and cold-induced hypertension. Dr. Fregly authored or co-authored more than 500 publications, including four books, and contributed chapters to over 50 books.

He was a member of several professional societies including the American Physiological Society, the Canadian Physiological Society, the Endocrine Society, the American Thyroid Association, the American Heart Association, and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. He served as consultant to the Strasenburgh Pharmaceutical Company (1965-1967) and to the National Institutes of Health as a member of the Respiration and Applied Physiology Study Section (1987-1991). In the early 1990s, he served on the American Institute of Biological Sciences' Advisory Panel for NASA, the NASA Regulatory Physiology Discipline Working Group, and the Space Station Science and Advisory Subcommittee to NASA.

Dr. Fregly died in 1996.

Scope and Content

Correspondence, research material, writings, speeches, notes, photographs, printed publications, and other records make up the Melvin J. Fregly Papers (1932-2003). The collection primarily documents his professional activities from 1956 until his death in 1996, and most notably contains all of his research files and writings. The largest group of files within the collection is Series 2: Research Files (1941-1996), which documents the extensive research conducted over a span of forty years by Dr. Fregly in areas such as hypertension, salt preference and appetite, body temperature, and fluid and electrolyte balance. His research productivity is clearly demonstrated by the large size of the Publications and Writings Series (Series 8; 1949-1997), which includes journal articles, monographs, chapters in books, reviews, and an assortment of other writings. Several other groups of files also relate directly to his research, and include material such as notes and notebooks, photographs of experiments and experiment results, writings by other researchers, and speeches.

In addition, the collection contains Dr. Fregly's correspondence, personal papers and memorabilia, and papers pertaining to his teaching and professional activities as a member of the University of Florida faculty. Of particular interest is the Patent and Financial Files Series (1987-1999), which is comprised of legal and financial material, as well as associated correspondence and news clippings, concerning patents held by Fregly. Several files in this series pertain to the thirst quencher beverage TQII invented by Fregly, J.R. Cade, and M. Privette. Their patent to this invention was the subject of law suits by Quaker Oats, which claimed that the beverage was too similar to Gatorade (also created by Cade and owned by Quaker).

The collection is organized into 15 series, or groups of files:

It should be noted that Fregly and his assistants often used abbreviations when creating folder titles. Therefore, files related to salt research might be written as "sodium chloride," or as "NaCl," or simply as "salt." Likewise, some elements are often referred to by their symbol on the periodic table (e.g., "K" instead of "potassium") and many drugs and medical terms are abbreviated. In addition, some terms have multiple abbreviations used inconsistently throughout the files. The term "adrenalectomized," for example, is abbreviated as adrenal, adrex, adex, or adx.

Access or Use Restrictions

Access

The collection is open for research. Please note, however, that this collection is housed in the Auxiliary Library Facility off campus and will require advance notice for timely retrieval. Please contact the Special and Area Studies Collections department prior to your visit.

Administrative Information

Alternate Form of Finding Aid

Due to its large size an alternate version of this descriptive finding aid, broken into several pages, is available at https://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/archome/fregly.htm.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Melvin J. Fregly Papers, Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Acquisition Information

The Fregly Papers were donated by Marilyn S. Fregly of Gainesville, Florida, in 1998.