DIABETES: ITS CAUSE AND ITS TREATMENT WITH INSULIN
Insulin a welcome discovery.—The discovery of a method for obtaining insulin in a form suitable for use in treating diabetes is a cause for genuine rejoicing. The sensational newspaper and magazine articles that greeted the discovery were, in a sense, a public expression of such rejoicing, and their exaggerations may be forgiven if this is remembered. The effort to gain an understanding and a sure method of controlling diabetes has taken years, and while the scientist delved in his laboratory, the seemingly unconquerable disease continued to take an ever-increasing toll of young and aged victims. In New York City, for instance, where statistics collected by Dr. Emerson are most reliable, the deaths from diabetes in 1866 were only 1 for each 2,437 deaths from all causes. In 1923, one death in every fifty-one was due to diabetes. The diabetic death rate in New York City was trebled between 1880 and 1920 for ages up to forty-five years. For ages of forty-five and more, it was quintupled. There are probably more than a million patients with diabetes in the United States. No wonder then that mankind in general was overjoyed when the news came that the young Canadians, Banting and Best, had discovered insulin.