DIABETES TREATMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18267, 7 December 1922, Page 6

DIABETES TREATMENT.

DISCOVERY IN TORONTO. BRILLIANT RESEARCH WORK. REMEDY OFFERED TO THE WORLD [from our own correspondent.] TORONTO. Oct. 21. Continued use of a new treatment for diabetes, discovered by Dr. F. 0. Banting, a young Toronto doctor, moro than confirms all that wa,s said when tho treatment was first announced a few months ago. Dr. Banting is about 30 years old. He graduated from tho University of Toronto in 1916, wont to Franco with tho Armv Medical Corps, won his way from private to captain, was awarded the Military Cross, and was wounded at Cambrai. Ho served on tho staff of a local military hospital, and in 1920 sccured an appointment on the staff oi Western University, London, Ontario. Associated with him has been Mr. C. H. Best, 8.A., who went overseas when lie was 18, and is now only 23. He is the physiologist and bio-chemist of tho partnership. Dr. Banting's inspiration came to him while reading an article dealing with " Tho Isles of Laugerbans" one evening in November. 1920. The isles of Laugerbans, according to tho discovery of a. German named Langerbans, is tho part of tho pancreas which secretes into the blond stream the fluid necessary for tho oxidation of starches and sugars in the body. It is its failure to function that produces diabetes. But the pancreas has a double function. It secretes a second fluid into the intestines for digestive purposes. Banting reasoned that if in an animal he. could close up tho duct con- i netting the pancreas with the intestines, ho would cause the pancreas to lose one of its functions and thereby enable him to study tho othor function, which is the production of tho fluid that oxidises sucrar. Then if he could secure this other substance ho would have an extract which, when injected into the blood of a patient suffering from diabetes, should oxidise tho sugar and give relief.

A Critical Test. Six months later lie> resigned his position in London to return to Toronto University io seek assistance and facilities forcoxporinient. He experimented with docs. Diabetic dogs, that is dogs from which the pancreas has been removed, have long been familiar to diabetes research workers. Hitherto a diabetic dog might live 14 days. Banting and Best, who joined him in his first experiment in May, 1920, injected their extract into a diabetic dog. They kept him alive for five times 14 days, or 70 days, and then chloroformed him. The theory worked! Then came the fateful day last December when tli?se two young adventurers, who so far had been experimenting only on animals, had to determine whether their extract would he injurious to human beings. Banting looked at Best and Best at Banting. "I would not ask anybody to take something I would not take myself," was Banting's attitude, and ho handed a hypodermic syringe to Best. So Best gave Banting the first "shot." Later Banting returned" the experimental compliment. In January their first 'experiments on '■"'man sufferers from diabetes began. By Tarch the Canadian Mediical Association Journal was able to report the following clinical observations: (_) Blood sugar cap. bo redueed to the. normal values; (2) sugar in the urine can he abolished; (o) acetone bodies (toxic) can be made to disappear from the urine: (4), the respiratory quotient shows evidence of increased* utilisation of e&rbofi yd rates ; (51 a definite improvement is observed in tho general condition of patients.

Preparation ol Estract. On the problem of securing a supply of the extract, much painstaking research has been directed, and Dr. Banting has displayed great resourcefulness. Now a process lias been discovered under which the extract is obtained from the whole pancreas of a mature animal, cows being ordinarily used. At present every nerve is being strained by the discoverers and those associated with them to perfect tho method of preparation, to perfect the process of refinement, and to standardise tho dos.ige and application. Dr. Banting has entrusted the basic patents of his discovery to the University of Toronto, with the understanding that they are to be placed freely at the disposal of tho medical profession and tho public generally, as soon as perfections in the treatment and methods of production of the extract make this possible. No Claims of "Oxire." When Dr. Banting was interviewed, he i deprecated the use of tho word "cure." "We refer to it as a treatment," he said. "I haven't any doubt that what we are using is the internal secretion of the pancreas. I haven't any doubt, either, that when it is administered it takes away all the symptoms of diabetes." "And the reason you do not say 'cure' is that you have to keep on administering the serum if the symptoms arc to be kept away?" Dr. Banting replied that there have been no patients "cured" in the sense that they can do without further injections of the extract. He explained that if the pancreas were destroyed, nothing could ever make it whole again. The treatment resemhles the use of thyroid extract in disease of the thyroid gland. As long as it is applied the symptoms are removed. In mild cases of diabetes the diet treatment produces results and will no douht j continue to ho used, but it is the severe j diabetes melitus, which, as the diction- j ary says, is " usually fatal," that Dr. Banting has challenged. Some patients ; who have taken the insulin treatment I had previously been reduced to a diet containing less than 1000 calories a day. As the requirement of a normal body is from 2000 to 2500 calories a day the restricted j diet of these patients approached starva- i tion. Accompanying injections of insulin, i an almost normal diet has become pos- I siblc. Authoritative Opinions. In the United States a pharmaceutical j firm in Indianapolis, under arrangement ' with the University of Toronto, has been j producing a limited quantity of the ex- j tract and distributing it to diabetes ex- j perts. It is understood also that tho ' Universiy of Toronto lias communicated j directions for the production of the extract to experts in Chicago and also to tho Potter metabolic lalv<ratory and clinic in Sant;;, Barbara,, Californa. In connection with the latter Dr. Pritchett, president of the Carnegie Corporation, has announced Ihat nine severe cases of diabetes have bcfin treated there with success. One, he reports, was a man 53 years old, "on tho verge of diabetic coma" (usually preliminary to death). Following tlie administration of the extract, "he became immediately free from sugar, his diet could be increased to normal, and lie Is rapidly gaining in strength and weight." During the last few months a large number of American and British diabetes experts and representatives of medical associations, have eomo to Toronto to investigate the treatment. Dr. H. H. Dale and Dr. H. W. Dudley, representing tho i National Institute for' Medical Research j in Great Britain, are at present here and I arrangements have been made with the University of Toronto, under which the Research Council has accepted the patents, for the production of the extract in Great Britain.