Moody Medical Library

Frederick Grant Banting (1891-1941), a Toronto physician, became interested in diabetes and the internal secretion of the pancreas. In May 1921, he began experiments on pancreatic secretions with Charles Herbert Best (1899-1978), a medical student, in an attic laboratory under the direction of J. J. R. Macleod. They worked virtually day and night with no funds and little equipment but on July 30, 1921, they proved the existence of an internal secretion of the pancreas which could control diabetes in pancreatectomized dogs.

In November 1921, they reported their results in the treatment of human diabetes, which were immediately accepted. For the first time, juvenile diabetes was controlled. Insulin, which was isolated by Dr. Best in 1923, is still the basic treatment for juvenile diabetes, as well as for adult-onset diabetes. As a result of their discovery, diabetics today can live a normal and productive life. Drs. Banting and Macleod were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923; Dr. Banting shared his prize with Dr. Best.

Alexander Alexandrovich Bogomolets (1881-1946) was born in Kiev. A biologist and physician, he held the position of professor of pathological physiology at the University of Saratov from 1911-1925 and at the University of Moscow from 1925-1930. In 1930, he founded and directed the Institute for Experimental Biology in Kiev, where he devoted himself to the study of the effects of fatigue and particularly to the aging process in humans. He was the co-founder of the Central Institute for Blood Transfusions. He wrote extensively and became internationally known as an endocrinologist and physiologist. He is regarded in Russia as the father of longevity.

Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943) made the fundamental discovery in 1901 that changed a desperate hit-or-miss blood transfusion technique into one of the surest aids of modern medicine. He determined the basic group of blood corresponding to the defensive reaction of each type; his basic classification of A, B, AB, and O has formed the basis of blood-typing ever since. Type O is a universal donor and type AB a universal receiver. It is good practice, however, to use the same group for donor and receiver. Through a simple test mixing of blood samples, one can ensure that no agglutination takes place which would render transfusion dangerous.

Prenatal and postnatal care of mothers and the care given to children in clinics have greatly reduced the dangers of childbearing as well as the tremendous infant mortality of former years. The clinics are a relatively recent development; they have been established in all countries throughout the world and are usually accepted and popular even in more primitive areas.

Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) was born in Scotland and received his medical degree from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School of London in 1908. He became a member of Sir Almroth Wright's bacteriological laboratory, the famous "Inoculation Service." In 1928, due to the exposure of a culture of staphylococci, Dr. Fleming observed an unusual mold, penicillin, with remarkable antibiotic powers. This substance was purified by Florey and Chain in 1940 and a method for its commercial production was developed in America under the guidance of Dr. Chester Keefer. Penicillin was the first therapeutically effective antibiotic. Drs. Fleming, Florey and Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945 for their discovery.

Belgian-born Jules Bordet (1870-1961) served as director of the Pasteur Institute in Brussels. He discovered bacterial hemolysis in 1898 and, with Gengou in 1900, developed the complement fixation test, the underlying principle of the Wassermann and similar tests. In 1906, Bordet and Gengou discovered the etiologic agent of whooping cough. His work contributed tremendously to our knowledge of the mechanism of thrombin formation. In 1919, his classic Treatise on Immunology in Infectious Diseases was published. The leading immunologist of his time, Bordet was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1920.

Auguste Henri Forel (1848-1931) was born in Switzerland and studied natural sciences and medicine at the University of Zurich, Vienna, and Lausanne. He received his medical degree from Lausanne in 1872 and was associated with the University of Munich from 1873 to 1879 when he went to the University of Zurich. He served at Zurich as professor of psychiatry and director of the Burghoizli Insane Asylum until his retirement in 1898. Forel is best known for his work on the anatomy of the brain and nerves. He was the first to formulate the concept of cellular and functional nerve units which Waldeyer later called neurons. He also devised a practical brain microtome. In addition, he was an outstanding entomologist, describing over 3500 new species of insects of hymenoptera.

Luis Morquio (1869-1935) was an outstanding pediatrician in his native Uruguay for his work and his dedication to the problems of childhood illness.

The modern concept of pediatrics was initiated by Edward Heinrich Henoch (1820-1910) of Berlin. This concept has been elaborated as pediatricians have added to the knowledge of the diseases and health problems peculiar to children. Dr. Morquio was the first to describe the congenital disease eccentro-osteochondro-dysplacia.

Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830) was born in Virginia and received his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1785. He belongs to the first period of American surgery when most of the American surgeons were graduates of Scottish and English schools of medicine.

McDowell’s work in ovariotomy may be considered an isolated phenomenon. He performed the first successful ovariotomy in surgical history (1809) without anesthesia and before the days of antiseptic or aseptic surgery, on a 47-year-old patient. He published his daring achievement in 1817. This operation is considered the beginning of gynecological surgery and the start of the specialty of gynecology.

Albert Calmette (1863-1933) was particularly interested in tuberculosis. While Director of the Pasteur Institute of Lille he devised the conjunctival test for tuberculosis.

Camille Guerin (1872-1961) was born in Vienne, France. He studied veterinary medicine and graduated in 1896. His primary interest was bacteriology with special interest in tuberculosis. Guerin was chosen by Calmette to study tuberculosis with the objective of developing a vaccine for prevention and or cure of tuberculosis.

After twenty years of careful study they did develop an attenuated tuberculosis organism vaccine designated as BCG (Bacillus Calmette Guerin). These studies were conducted by Guerin on bovines in Lille and then by both Guerin and Calmette at the Pasteur Institute. The BCG vaccine is now recommended by the World Health Organization for the immunization of children in developing countries and it is used throughout the world. In 1951 Guerin was elected President of the French Academy of Medicine.