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juices to the stomach. These strong acids had been trapped in the outer cells of the pancreas
and had destroyed those cells. The cells literally shut down and dried up.
Banting wondered if he could intentionally kill the outer pancreatic cells of an animal
and then harvest its inner cell juice for use by diabetic humans.
His plan was simple enough. Operate to tie off the ducts from a dog’s pancreatic outer
cells to the stomach, wait the eight weeks Dr. Barron had mentioned in his article, and hope
that the outer cells had dried up and died. Finally, in a second operation, he would harvest
the dog’s pancreas and see if it still contained life-giving inner cells and their precious juice.
He would artificially create diabetes in another dog s and see if the pancreatic fluid from the
first dog could keep it alive.
With no funding, Banting talked his way into the use of a lab and six test dogs. The surgery was simple enough. Now he had to wait eight weeks for the outer cells to die.
However, early in week six the diabetic dog slid into a coma. This was the last stage
before death. Banting couldn’t wait any longer. He operated on one of the other dogs, successfully removing its pancreas. He ground up this tissue and extracted the juice by dissolving it in a chloride solution.
He injected a small amount of this juice into the diabetic dog. Within 30 minutes the
dog awakened from its coma. Within two hours it was back on its feet. In five hours it began
to slide back down hill. With another injection it perked up, with enough energy to bark and
wag its tail.
Banting was ecstatic. His hunch had been right!
Dr. John Marcum named the juice, “insulin” during the two years that he and Dr.
Banting searched for a way to create this precious juice without harming lab dogs—a feat
they eventually accomplished.
Fun Facts: In 1922 a 14-year-old boy suffering from type I diabetes was
the first person to be treated with insulin. He showed rapid improvement.
More to Explore
Bankston, John. Frederick Banting and the Discovery of Insulin. Hockessin, DE:
Mitchell Lane, 2001.
Bliss, Michael. Discovery of Insulin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Fox, Ruth. Milestones in Medicine. New York: Random House, 1995.
Li, Alison. J. B. Collip and the Evolution of Medical Research in Canada. Toronto:
McGill-Queens University Press, 2003.
Mayer, Ann. Sir Frederick Banting. Monroe, WI: The Creative Co., 1994.
Stottler, J. Frederick Banting. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1996.