The discovery of insulin

Today marks the 90th anniversary of the first time insulin was used on a human patient.

A brief summary of this event runs as follows: the insulin was injected into a 14-year old diabetic, Leonard Thompson, at Toronto General Hospital. Insulin had been discovered in 1921 at the University of Toronto by Canadian doctor Frederick Banting and American biomedical scientist Charles Best. Thompson's condition had worsened in late 1921 and when he was admitted to hospital he weighed only 65 pounds. With the risk of him slipping into a diabetic coma, Thompson's father let the hospital try the new pancreatic extract for the first time.

As a biography of Thompson on the Science Museum's Brought to Life website notes:

"The extract was an impure form of insulin. Thompson had an allergic reaction, and it had little effect.

A few days later Thompson was injected with a purer form of insulin. This was extracted by the chemist James Collip. Thompson’s blood sugars gradually returned to normal and his diabetic symptoms began to disappear. News of Thompson’s recovery spread, inspiring people with diabetes and their families to write letters to Banting and Best asking for urgent treatment".

So, a medical breakthrough: treatment for diabetes was revolutionised and a terminal disease became treatable. Banting received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1923 and as a result of these developments, the lives of millions were changed for the better.

What this quick summary skates over, however, were the politics and powerplays that went on behind the scenes, with disagreements over who could claim success for the development of insulin. What role was played by Prof John Macleod, Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto, who granted Banting a laboratory at the University to conduct his research (it was with MacLeod, not Best, that Banting shared his Nobel Prize)? And what of Collip, who purified the insulin?

The most detailed account of these discoveries is The discovery of insulin by Michael Bliss (2007 ed), but the Wellcome Library also holds a file of papers which casts an interesting light on these debates.

This comes in the form of copies of letters passed on to the Wellcome Library in 1959 by Sir Henry Dale - Chairman of the Wellcome Trust and also one of the most respected scientists of his time. The letters include accounts of the discovery of insulin by both Banting and MacLeod and illustrate their divergent views. The file also includes a summary of its contents written by Dale himself, offering his own perspective on events.

Leaving aside the actual details of these letters, we'd merely like to flag up this file as an example of how medical breakthroughs have rarely been the result of the efforts of one lone scientist, and that disagreements over recognition by both public and peers can cloud the achievements of scientists.

It's also noteworthy that the papers, whilst focusing on the discovery of insulin and setting out the achievements of Banting, MacLeod, Collip and Best, make very little mention of the use of insulin to treat Leonard Thompson.

Image: Leonard Thompson, from the site 'The Discovery and Early Development of Insulin' from Digital Collections of the University of Toronto

Global Handwashing Day

It is Global Hand Washing Day today and we've chosen to mark the date by highlighting material from a recent library acquisition of African health posters, a number of which remind us all of the importance of hand washing and basic sanitation.

For instance, the simple act of washing hands with soap (752738i) and segregation of toilet facilities (756161i) can prevent common ailments in children like diarrhoea associated with cholera (755196i), eye infections (755601i) and since 2000, avian flu (755530i).



Personal hygiene was key to the 2000 Sara Campaign, an initiative aimed at adolescent girls developed in 10 countries of Eastern and Southern Africa with UNICEF assistance. Originally a radio series, the programme branched out into animated films, comic books, storybooks, audiocassettes, guides and posters. (Source: www.unicef.org/lifeskills/index).

Hand washing with soap is said to be the most effective and cheapest way to prevent diarrhoea (associated with cholera and typhoid fever) and acute respiratory infections (like TB and pneumonia). Such infections take the lives of millions of children in developing countries each year, according to the Global Public-Private Partnership for Hand Washing who initiated Global Handwashing Day (GHD) in 2008. Posters are an essential way of promoting the routine which, it appears, is seldom practiced in some areas yet could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention. (Source: http://globalhandwashingday.org/).


Apart from basic hygiene issues, the majority of posters from this collection highlight family planning issues (birth control, family size, contraception etc) but, not surprisingly, many other problems are revealed: malaria (755536i), polio (755539i ), TB (752340i), typhoid (755617i) avian flu (752086i), trachoma and blindness (752498i ), diabetes (755362i) and hypoglyemia (755464i).







Less commonly depicted are issues concerning female circumcision (755185i and 755386i ), genital mutilation (752291i), and in 2001, the ‘flying toilet’ problem in Kibera slums (755701i, and 755711i).

Details of our collection of African health posters can be seen in the Wellcome Library catalogue.

Images:

A girl washing her hands in a bowl above a tap in a washing cubicle; health education in Ethiopia. Colour lithograph by Health Education Centre (?), ca. 2000, Wellcome Library ref. 752738i

School children visiting a segregated corrugated toilet and washing their hands: hygiene in Kenya. Colour lithograph by Ministry of Health, Kenya, ca. 2000, Wellcome Library ref. 756161i

Women preparing a chicken and washing their hands: preventing avian flu in Kenya. Colour lithograph by Ministry of Health, ca. 2006, Wellcome Library ref. 755530i

A girl holds a chicken on a plate as a man washes his hands: protecting against avian flu in Kenya. Colour lithograph by UNICEF and Maskew Miller Longman, ca. 2000, Wellcome Library ref. 755918i

Campaign against female genital mutilation in Djibouti. Colour lithograph by A. Rachid and A. Djama for Ministère de la Santé MGF project, ca. 2010, Wellcome Library ref. 752291i

Three toilets in the form of ducks in flight: appeal to improve sanitation in the slums of Kibera. Colour lithograph by AMREF, 2001, Wellcome Library ref. 755701i

Cataloguing the Himsworth collection

Newly available in the Archives and Manuscripts collection: the papers of Sir Harold Himsworth (1905-1993)

The personal papers of Sir Harold Himsworth reflect the great diversity of interests that the scientist had during his lifetime. Included within the collection are some of his first experimental notebooks on diabetes, annual reports and papers spanning his long secretarial reign at the Medical Research Council, and even the philosophy book Scientific Knowledge & Philosophic Thought published in the last decade of his life.

Sir Harold Himsworth was distinguished for his dual contribution to experimental medical research and as secretary to the MRC. Within the collection is some of his earliest research into diabetes, undertaken at University College Hospital. The experimental notebooks on animal and human subjects show his work in progress as he examined kidney function and the causes of diabetes. (Researchers should note that there are certain restrictions on access to notebooks containing medical data on human cases). A number of related files within the collection concern conditions such as fructosauria and Addison’s Disease. Later work incorporates Himsworth’s interest in liver function and disease and the collection will undoubtedly be useful for researchers examining the discovery of medical advances within these fields. In addition to Himsworth’s experimental notes and papers, there is also a series of his published articles.

A large portion of the collection illustrates Sir Harold’s second career as secretary to the Medical Research Council (1949-1968). Material includes the organisation’s annual reports written during this time along with memoranda, working papers and other reports. The most intriguing item is a notebook of Sir Harold's compiled during his tour of the African MRC stations, which illustrates his commitment to expanding the MRC to incorporate tropical medicine.

An early indicator of Himsworth's interest in training and research can be found in his active involvement in the movement to reform the training of medical practitioners during the early years of the Second World War. This series comprises Himsworth’s draft papers and correspondence with fellow like-minded physicians and also with institutions such as the Royal College of Physicians and the School of Tropical Medicine. It is worth noting that the documents contain some information on the working conditions of doctors at University College Hospital during the early years of the war. At the latter end of his career Himsworth was a pioneering force in creating the Social Science Research Council and included in the collection are his copies of the working papers of the organisation’s first conference at Warwick in 1968. His interest in the relationship of sociology and medicine is expanded upon during his retirement in the 1980s. The great labour and frustration that he endured during the publication of his article ‘Epidemiology, Genetics and Sociology’ can be seen by the countless re-drafts, correspondence with publishers and critical assessments from friends and former colleagues including Richard Doll.

Sir Harold’s retirement from the MRC did not lead to a sedentary lifestyle as can be seen by his work for the Home Office in the Northern Ireland Enquiry into the effects of CS gas, from 1968 to 1972. The material relating to Northern Ireland is fascinating for the range of documents available which include official minutes and correspondence during the enquiry. Within the reports are eyewitness accounts, results of animal experimentation on CS gas toxicity and related correspondence with scientists in the United States and France. This material is of particular interest due to the political implications of the enquiry and the relationship between science and politics.

The final section of the archive comprises addresses, articles and obituaries collected during Himsworth’s lifetime. The series of addresses are of interest as they document Himsworth’s speeches to a number of institutions from 1953 to 1975. Whilst, the final item of this section is the previously mentioned book Scientific Knowledge and Philosophic Thought (1986) which exemplifies the breadth of knowledge and curiosity of the man.

Author: Chris Olver

The catalogue of the Himsworth papers can be viewed in the online catalogue of Archives and Manuscripts using the reference PP/HPH.

The image shows a tear-gas cannister that has just hit the ground and exploded, reflecting Sir Harold's papers on the use of the gas in Northern Ireland.

Wellcome Film at Learning on Screen

The Wellcome Film project was showcased at the 2009 Learning on Screen Conference, hosted by the Wellcome Library and run by the BUFVC on 7-8 April. Held in the Auditorium of the Wellcome Collection building on 183 Euston Road, London, the event focussed on digital video accessibility issues with a special session on new online video initiatives. The presentations showed that a range of new software applications have the potential to make video more and more accessible to people with disabilities. Of particular note was Sal Cook's introduction to the JISC's TechDis service, with information about software for developers that will maximise audio-visual accessibility.


The Wellcome Film project was presented by Christy Henshaw and Angela Saward on the second day, providing an overview of the project, its context in the Library's digitisation programme, choice of content, formats, metadata, and the various delivery methods utilised (open access via the Wellcome Library online catalogue, and HE/FE access via Film and Sound Online). A selection of clips was screened at the end of the presentation to illustrate the range of content chosen for inclusion in the project.

The Wellcome Film project has to date made over 200 titles accessible, including "Talk about Insulin", 1959 (below). This video shows an interview with Prof. Charles H. Best and Dr R.D. Lawrence. Prof. Best, along with Dr Frederick Banting, discovered the use of insulin in treating diabetes. Dr R.D. Lawrence was one of the first diabetics to receive insulin, and went on to carry out further research in this area.