The Story of Insulin [antikvár]

Foreword by Dr R. D. LAWRENCE As a diabetic who was moribund before Insulin I feel honoured, and am very glad, to write an introduction in praise of the discovery and treatment which have kept me alive and active for 40 years. How many others in such a state were rescued forty years ago - and how many have been since - I do not know, but this book contains figures which will enable ardent arithmeticians to work it out. I have read other books on the story of Insulin, but none has given me more feeling of drama and authenticity of detail than this one - not surprisingly, since it was written in Toronto, with Best himself following the proceedings. The book covers a wide scope in time and place. It starts centuries before Insulin, with the Greeks giving a clinical description of the disease and naming it " Diabetes55 from the excessive flow of urine. It passes on to the clinical observations of famous doctors in many countries, especially in mediaeval and Renaissance Europe, and shows how by the 19th century only two outstanding new clinical facts had emerged: (1) that the urine was sweet, or "honeyed" -hence "mellitus" - and (2) that the pancreas was often diseased (a relation confirmed by the first vital experimental fact (Germany, 1899) that the removal of the pancreas gave dogs a fatal diabetes similar to that of man). Over the next hundred years the best experimenters in all countries tried, but failed, to extract an anti-diabetic substance from the pancreas. The problem had already been judged insoluble and almost abandoned, when Banting in Canada came with a fresh idea and the energy to test it. No wonder Macleod, the Professor of Physiology in Toronto, questioned whether it was worth while granting this