January 11, 1922: Frederick Banting Perfects Insulin Treatment

January 11, 1922: For the 1st time, insulin is injected into a diabetes patient. It works.

Frederick Grant Banting was born on November 14, 1891 in Alliston, Ontario, Canada. He studied at the University of Toronto, and was wounded as a Canadian Army doctor at the Battle of Cambrai in 1918. Despite his injuries, he helped other wounded men for sixteen hours, until another doctor told him to stop. As Canada was then part of the British Empire, the British government awarded him the Military Cross for his heroism.

An article he read about the pancreas piqued Banting's interest in diabetes. Banting had to give a talk on the pancreas to one of his classes at the University of Western Ontario on November 1, 1920, and he was therefore reading reports that other scientists had written.

Research suggested that diabetes resulted from a lack of a protein hormone secreted by the the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Dr. Sir Edward Sharpey-Schafer, now considered the father of endochrinology, had named this putative hormone "insulin." The hormone was thought to control the metabolism of sugar, and its lack led to an increase of sugar in the blood, which was then excreted in urine. Attempts to extract insulin from ground-up pancreas cells were unsuccessful, likely because of the destruction of the insulin by the proteolysis enzyme of the pancreas. The challenge was to find a way to extract insulin from the pancreas prior to its destruction.

Dr. Moses Barron published an article in 1920 which described experimental closure of the pancreatic duct by ligature, further influencing Banting's thinking. The procedure caused deterioration of the cells of the pancreas that secrete trypsin, which breaks down insulin, but it left the islets of Langerhans intact. Banting realized that this procedure would destroy the trypsin-secreting cells, but not the insulin. Once the trypsin-secreting cells had died, insulin could be extracted from the islets of Langerhans.

Banting gave the first-ever injection of insulin to Leonard Thompson, a 13-year-old Canadian, at Toronto General Hospital. Thompson showed signs of improved health, and went on to live 13 more years taking doses of insulin, before dying of pneumonia at age 26. With the Thompson success behind him, Banting established a private practice in Toronto, and began to treat diabetic patients. Banting and his research partner, Dr. John MacLeod, were awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. At 32, Banting remains the award's youngest winner.

Banting later assisted the Royal Canadian Air Force in confronting the medical dangers of aerial combat in World War II, including the invention of a gravity-resistant "G-suit" for pilots. Ironically, he was killed in a plane crash, dying on February 21, 1941, a day after being hurt in the crash of a Lockheed L-14 in Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland. He was only 49 years old. He had married twice, and had a son, William Banting (1929-1998). 

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January 11, 1922 was a Wednesday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. Perhaps it was appropriate, given that this was a day of the achievements of Canadians, that the only scores on this historic day were in the NHL, 2 games, involving only Canadian teams. The Ottawa Senators beat the Toronto St. Patrick's, 7-2 at The Arena in Ottawa. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Hamilton Tigers, 3-2 at the Barton Street Arena in Hamilton, Ontario.