An
exhibition on Diabetes and Endocrinology by the College Library
for the 43rd St. Andrew's Day Festival Symposium
Exhibition prepared by John Dallas, Rare Books Librarian |
 |
 Aretaeus
(81-138 A.D.)
De
diabete
Paris, 1554
Diabetes is one of the world’s oldest known diseases. The
phrase
‘the passing of too much urine’ appears in an Egyptian
manuscript written around 1550 B.C. The great Indian physician,
Susruta, described the disease around 500 B.C., noting a sweetness
in the urine in certain cases.
The Greek physician Aretaeus, writing in the 1st century A.D.,
gave the first complete clinical description. He noted the excessive
amount of urine which passed through the kidneys, and used the
word diabetes - derived from the Greek meaning ‘siphon’ -
to describe the condition.
|
 Thomas
Willis (1621-1675)
Practice
of physick
London, 1684
Thomas Willis rediscovered what eastern physicians had observed
a thousand years earlier – that in some forms of the “pissing
evil”, the urine of patients was “wonderfully
sweet”.
He used mellitus, the Latin word for honey, to distinguish
between this condition and other causes of excessive urination.
|
 Johann
Brunner (1653-1727)
Experimenta
nova circa pancreas
Leiden, 1709
Brunner came close to discovering pancreatic diabetes. He removed
the pancreas from dogs and noted that they displayed extreme thirst
and polyuria.
These are regarded as the first experiments on the internal secretion
of the pancreas.
|
 Matthew
Dobson (1731?-1784)
Experiments
and observations on the urine in diabetes (Medical Observations and
Inquiries)
London, 1776
Matthew Dobson from Yorkshire graduated MD at Edinburgh in 1756.
By evaporating the urine of a diabetic patient, Dobson was the
first to prove the presence of sugar in urine.
He also made the crucial observation of the excess of sugar in
blood, and demonstrated that diabetes is a systemic disorder rather
than, as had been previously thought, a primary disease of the
kidneys. |
 Thomas
Cawley (fl. 1788)
A
singular case of diabetes (London Medical Journal)
London, 1788
Thomas Cawley was the first to suggest a relationship between
the pancreas and diabetes. He noted that the pancreas of a patient
who had died of diabetes showed stones, and signs of tissue damage.
The significance of this vital clue was not to be appreciated for
another hundred years. |
 John
Rollo (d. 1809)
An
account of two cases of the diabetes mellitus
London, 1797
The Scots physician John Rollo was Surgeon General of the Royal
Artillery. Considered an authority on diabetes, he pioneered the
systematic treatment of the disease by a restricted diet.
Years of observation led him to the conclusion that a meat diet
was the most effective. Rollo made many other original observations
including diabetic cataract. |
 Frederick
Pavy (1829-1911)
Researches
on the nature and treatment of diabetes
London, 1862
Frederick Pavy had the largest number of diabetic patients in
London. He spent many years studying the disease and concluded
that there was a quantitative relationship between the degree of
hyperglycaemia and glycosuria. Queen Victoria’s physician,
Sir William Gull, is recorded as asking:
“What sin has Pavy committed, or his fathers before
him, that he should be condemned to spend his life seeking a
cure for an incurable disease?”
|
 Oscar
Minkowski (1858-1931)
Untersuchungen
uber den Diabetes Mellitus nach Extirpation des Pankreas
Leipzig, 1893
Oscar Minkowski produced experimental diabetes by removing the
pancreas of a dog.
This proof of the role of the pancreas in diabetes was of major
importance in understanding the disease.
|
 Eugene
Lindsay Opie (1873-1971)
The
relation of diabetes mellitus to lesions of the pancreas (Journal
of Experimental Medicine)
New York, 1900-01
Minkowski and other researchers had focused attention on the
pancreas as the seat of diabetes. Eugene Opie made a further important
advance by establishing the association between failure of the
islets of Langerhans and the occurrence of diabetes.
|
 Sir
Edward Sharpey-Schafer (1850-1935)
The
endocrine organs
London, 1916
Schafer was Professor of Physiology at the University of Edinburgh
from 1899 to 1933. He theorised that the islets of Langerhans must
secrete a substance which governed carbohydrate metabolism.
For this suspected internal secretion of the pancreas Schafer
suggested the name insuline.
|
 Sir
Frederick Banting (1891-1941)
Charles Herbert Best (1899-1978)
The
internal secretions of the pancreas
(American Journal of Physiology)
Baltimore, 1922
At the University of Toronto Frederick Banting, assisted by a
2nd year medical student Charles Best, finally made the discovery
which revolutionised the treatment of diabetes mellitus.
In 1922, only eight months after beginning their experiments,
they announced the isolation of insulin from the pancreas of a
dog. In 1923 Banting was awarded the Nobel Prize. |
 Sir
Norman Purvis Walker (1862-1942)
One of the first people in Britain to benefit from the discovery
of insulin was the Treasurer of the Royal College of Physicians
of Edinburgh. Norman Purvis Walker became Treasurer of the College
in 1908. A few years later he took ill and was found to be suffering
from diabetes. By 1922 he was reduced to extreme emaciation and
muscular weakness, and his colleagues held little hope for his
survival. The discoverers of insulin heard of his condition and
sent some over from Canada before it was generally available. Walker,
however, insisted that these first batches be given to a boy of
ten whose need he considered to be the greater. When Walker did
eventually receive insulin the effect was immediate.
“This saved his life. The transformation was nothing
short of marvellous and in a few weeks he had put on several
stones in weight and looked as he had done before his illness.”
Walker went on to be awarded a knighthood in 1923, and to become
President of both this College and of the General Medical Council. |
