Today in History
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Today in History |
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January 11, 1922 The First Clinical Use of Insulin |
In 1889, a Polish physician, Oscar Minkowski, removed the pancreas from a healthy dog and noted that the animal suffered an immediate rise in blood sugar. Thirty-three years later in 1922, a Canadian researcher, Frederick Banting, read Minkowski's notes and determined that diabetes might be treated with a pancreatic extract of insulin. He was provided a laboratory in which to work at the University of Toronto. On January 11, 1922, a 14-year-old diabetic boy lay dying at the Toronto General Hospital. Banting gave the boy, Leonard Thompson, an injection of the crude insulin extract which produced an allergic reaction as a result of impurities. Banting worked for twelve days to purify the insulin and reinjected young Thompson using insulin derived from a cow. The second dose was successful and not only eliminated the high blood sugars, but did so with no side effects. Banting was awarded the Nobel prize in 1923 for his work.
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