Her father, John Leitch, was religious and he had resigned his job as a postmaster when he was asked to work on a Sunday.

She had a gift for languages, being fluent in French, German, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, and competent in Dutch and Italian, and she earned some money by doing translations.

[7] The book had emerged after Hytten had approached Leitch for assistance with publishing his work on human breast milk.

Hytten credits Leitch with having the methodology, the contacts and the knowledge to quickly gather the required data.

[8] Leitch was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by her alma mater, the University of Aberdeen in 1965.

[1] Her work at the bureau included writing advice such as "Sprouted fodder and germinated grain in stock feeding" published in 1939.

[2] A review of her work concluded "In some ways, her approach echoed the remarkable flowering of science in the 8th and 9th centuries, when scientific scholars in the Islamic world brought together ideas and information from many cultures and translated documents and books from many languages to form a synthesis, thus giving a huge push to scientific understanding.