"HASTENS DEATH."

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 806, 8 September 1923, Page 5

"HASTENS DEATH."

ALLEGED DANGER OF INSULIN,

MEDICAL WARNING.

Hundreds of diabetics will be hastened to the grave by "Insulin" before the full therapeutic significance of the preparation can be ascertained. This startling addition to the Already conflicting mass of opinion on the subject of the treatment of diabetes with "insulin" is contained in the latest issue of the Medical Journal of Australia. The Journal considers that the public has been misled by the mativ articles on the subject in a section of tho daily press, and sufficient is not yet known about the preparation to justify the extravagant claims made for it. But, though public propaganda has been.employed to create a demand on the part of patients for this form of treatment, the publio has been told much concerning the remedy which is not true, and in consequence is convinced that diabetes can be cured by this means. DANGEROUS OVER-OONFIDENOE. In support of this assertion, the Medical Journal quotes a similar tragedy of blind faith which occurred at the tim* of the introduction of tuberculin, when ghastly results attended the wholesale misuse of this potent remedy, following upon the demand of the public. .' The article, in stressing the unenviable position in which the medical profession is placed when patients demand a certain form of treatment, advises practitioners to reluse to bear the responsibility for the "insulin' treatment unless facilities for continuous observations are possessed. It is not yet known under what circumstances the "insulin" preparation can safely be used, and it is considered that the treatment should not be applied until thorough investigations and arrangements have been made for its control.