William McCormick, M.D. 1880-1968 Hall of Fame 2004 "Vitamin C is a specific antagonist of chemical and bacterial toxins." Over 50 years ago, it was Toronto physician William J. McCormick, M.D., who pioneered the idea that poor collagen formation, due to vitamin C deficiency, was a principal cause of diverse conditions ranging from stretch marks to cardiovascular disease and cancer. This theory would become the foundation for Linus Pauling and Ewan Cameron's decision to employ large doses of vitamin C to fight cancer. Over twenty years before Pauling, McCormick had already reviewed the nutritional causes of heart disease and noted that four out of five coronary cases in hospital show vitamin C deficiency. McCormick also early proposed vitamin C deficiency as the essential cause of, and effective cure for, numerous communicable illnesses, becoming an early advocate of using vitamin C as an antiviral and an antibiotic. Modern writers often pass by the fact that McCormick actually advocated vitamin C to prevent and cure the formation of some kidney stones as far back as 1946. And fifty years ago, McCormick "found, in clinical and laboratory research, that the smoking of one cigarette neutralizes in the body approximately 25 mg of ascorbic acid." His early use of gram-sized doses to combat what then and now are usually regarded as non-deficiency-related illnesses set the stage for today's 100,000 mg/day antiviral/ anticancer vitamin C IV's.