Abstract
PROF. CHARLES BEST, of Toronto, delivered the twelfth Stephen Paget Memorial Lecture at the annual general meeting of the Research Defence Society on June 9 (The Fight against Disease, 26, No. 3; 1938). Prof. Best is the co-discoverer, with Prof. Banting, of the anti-diabetic substance known as 'insulin', now universally used for the treatment of the disease, and the subject of his lecture was “Insulin and Diabetes: The Present Position”. The stages in the discovery and preparation of insulin were first outlined, and Prof. Best then described recent modifications-protamine- and protamine-zinc insulins-by the use of which the effect of the dose is prolonged. He next discussed the influence of insulin treatment upon diabetic mortality in Canada, where since 1922 insulin has been available for everyone who wished to have it. In certain age groups the mortality from diabetes is not coming down ; it may even be going up, because there are now many more diabetics who reach the older age groups. When these people die, as even the diabetic must, the cause of death is usually stated to be diabetes. But in the earlier age groups, up to fifty years, diabetic mortality has markedly declined. From 1891 until 1920, before the use of insulin, the percentage mortality among diabetics up to 50 years of age remained steadily at about 45 per cent, that is, nearly half the cases died. Since 1922, when insulin began to be used, the mortality first steadily declined, and for 1929-33 has been about 15 per cent (statistics for Ontario). This great saving of human life, as well as of much suffering, must be ascribed to experimental work done upon animals, and Sir Edward Mellanby, in proposing a vote of thanks to the lecturer, bewailed the fact that it is necessary even now for scientific men to come forward and justify the use of animal experiments.
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Insulin Treatment of Diabetes. Nature 142, 425–426 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142425d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142425d0