Insulin is not a cure for diabetes; it is a treatment. It enables the diabetic to burn sufficient carbohydrates so that proteins and fats may be added to the diet in sufficient quantities to provide energy for the economic burdens of life.
Frederick Banting
Diabetes mellitus is due to a deficiency of the internal secretion of the pancreas. The main principle of treatment is, therefore, to correct this deficiency.
I had been taught that if I cried, to be quiet about it, so whereas I never howled, the least thing made me cry both at school and at home. Crying tends to separate a child from other children, for even children dislike a cry baby, and I had no friends in the world.
I lived in constant terror of being asked a question in class. Even if I knew the answer, I was never able to tell it before the class.
Best and I worked in the sub-basement of the old medical building day and night. Time, meals, sleep - all were of secondary consideration. We had to get insulin into a form that was refined enough for continued clinical use.
I very deeply appreciate the honour which you have conferred upon me in awarding the Nobel Prize for 1923 to me and Professor J.J.R. Macleod.
Especially during the hot weather, we have been so greatly hampered by infections despite our utmost care, and since we have lost so many dogs, I strongly desire more help to keep the place clean and gloves and gowns and a thorough fitting up of our operating room.
When I go in, I find that it is not a lab but an office. There are a pile of letters to answer, phone numbers to call up, people waiting to have an interview, routine work that must be done.
If a patient became sugar-free and blood sugar normal on a basal requirement diet, the caloric intake was gradually increased until sugar appeared in the urine. The tolerance was thus ascertained.
Father was very sympathetic, and if the hero of a romance was good or to be pitied, his eyes would fill with tears until he could not see.
Best said possibly the only thing that would have changed my attitude: 'What will happen to me?' 'Your friend MacLeod will look after you,' I said. Best replied, 'If you get out, I get out.' There was silence for some moments. I thought of all the joy of the early experiments which we had known together. Here was loyalty.
During the first couple of years at school... I used to take my lunch and go down by the old fair grounds & sit alone by the side of the road & eat it... Those lovely, lonely lunches stick deep in my memory as unhappy times.
In the U.S., the incidence of diabetes has increased proportionately with the per capita consumption of sugar.
It was because of Henderson that I stayed... It was he and he alone who kept me in Toronto and in Canada. Were it not for Henderson, I believe insulin would have been a product of the United States.
In the past, war was confined for the most part to men in uniform, but with increased mechanization of armies and the introduction of air forces, there is an increased dependence on the home country, and eight to ten people working at home are now required to keep one man in the fighting line.
Professor Macleod, in his remarks, gave everything that I was going to say and used the pronoun 'we' throughout. The following day, students were talking about the remarkable work of Professor Macleod.
The method of estimating the potency of insulin solutions is based on the effect that insulin produces upon the blood sugar of normal animals.
My work is entirely surgical, and Col. Starr has given me a very interesting task of collecting nerve cases that have had the nerves sewn together. I may also do some experimental work for him.
I looked at one little print for a long time. It was called 'The Landing.' It showed men tugging on a rope, pulling a boat up onto skids out of the water. The thought occurred to me that I might paint such a picture.
British Forces should be in a position to give back in a ten fold measure any attack that the Germans may attempt.
The place where we were operating was not fit to be called an operating room. Aseptic work had not been done in it for some years. The floor could not be scrubbed properly, or the water would go through on the laboratories below.
Mr. Best has expressed the desire to work with me, and I should be more than pleased to have him. His work has been excellent, and he is absolutely honest, careful, and impartial and has taken a great interest in the work.
Henderson had a thousand times more to do with the discovery of insulin than had Macleod. In the first place, he knew more about it. In the second place, he was consulted before every series of experiments, and he advised, criticized, or commended.
On February 19th, Dr. Collip found that he was unable to refine the extract by his method and was unable to keep up his supply to the wards. During the following six weeks, or longer, no extract was available for clinical tests. I believe the reason for this to be that Collip, wishing to keep his process a secret, had not kept careful records.
It was an extremely trying time for me. Best was still intimate with MacLeod and the others about the laboratory. I was out of the picture entirely. MacLeod had taken over the whole physiological investigation. Collip had taken over the biochemistry. Professor Graham and Dr. Campbell had taken over the whole clinical aspect of the investigation.
