Category: History Essays
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Part I: The impact of insulin on children with diabetes at Toronto Sick Kids in the 1920s
Sarah RiedlingerDean GiustiniBrenden HurshVancouver, British Columbia, Canada Introduction Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world.1 In 2009 Canada alone had 2.35 million people with diabetes.2 Some 10% of sufferers have type 1 diabetes (T1DM), the most common form seen in children.3 Before 1922 most children with diabetes died,…
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Part II: The impact of insulin on children with diabetes at Toronto Sick Kids in the 1920s
Sarah RiedlingerDean GiustiniBrenden HurshVancouver, British Columbia, Canada Progress in diabetes care between 1922 and 1929 In 1923 Banting joined the staff of the Hospital for Sick Children and was placed in charge of diabetes care. He and physician Gladys Boyd developed a comprehensive program of treating children with diabetes. The program resulted in a 50%…
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The history of diabetes and insulin
Anabelle S. SlingerlandLeiden, Netherlands The discovery of insulin in 1921 by Banting, Best, Collip, and McLeod was heralded as the cure of diabetes (Figure 1). Press reports consigned earlier research to oblivion, suggesting that previous investigators had merely been groping in the dark. And yet this revolutionary discovery was preceded by legions of key figures…
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Finding a “new orientation” in Mexican public health: The Servicio Médico-Social
Steve ServerChicago, Illinois, USA In the 1935-1936 issue of the Mexican Public Health Department’s newsletter, Salubridad, the newly-minted Chief of the Department, Doctor and General José Siurob, offered a vision for the “new orientation for the public health services.”1 He announced that the department would be entering “a new era of social action, consequent with…
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The battle of the vivisected dog
Jack EffronBagmara, Bangladesh Medical education has not always been left to the professionals. In the past, and especially in London in the first decade of the twentieth century, it has become a political issue and caused rioting in the streets. On February 2, 1903, at the University College in University of London in a physiology…
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“Marvailous Cures”: Sympathetic medicine connecting Europe and China
Richard de GrijsSydney, AustraliaDaniel VuillerminBeijing, China In Renaissance Europe the concept of curing illnesses at a distance did not seem as outlandish as it would today. A newfound interest in classical remedies at a time when new plants were being found in the Americas and Asia ushered in an interest in pharmacological experimentation but also…
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An emperor unclothed: The virtuous Osler
Patrick FiddesPaul A. KomesaroffMelbourne, Australia Apart from Hippocrates himself, William Osler was among the most praised physicians of all time. Like his Greek forerunner, Osler amassed a huge following of loyal supporters, for whom he could evidently do no wrong. One went so far as to suggest that Osler was: “the greatest physician of all…
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The origins of pediatrics as a clinical and academic specialty in the United States
Colin PhoonNew York, USA In the long timeline of medicine, pediatrics is a recent clinical field. The first children’s hospital in the world was established in Paris in 1802, followed by the Hospital for Sick Children on Great Ormond Street in London in 1852.1 Rightfully so, many ascribe the birth of American pediatrics to the…
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The monarch, the musician, and the medic
Jesús Ramírez-BermúdezTranslated by Ilana Dann LunaMexico City, Mexico The history of medicine bestows us with unexpected episodes, such as the character of “The Swan King,” whose platonic love for a disgraced musician sparked the artistic transformation of a kingdom. A physician’s intervention led to a tragic scene in a castle by a lake, where a…
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Collections complete: Experiential centres of learning
Lynsey GrosfieldRude, Denmark The period between roughly 1520 and 1590 was a time of growing efforts to understand the world of science through hands-on exercises in collecting and cataloging natural objects, observation, dissection, and experimentation in the fields of anatomy, botany, and museum science. This was also the time of the High Renaissance in the…