Rethinking the “discovery” of insulin

摘要

The centenary of the discovery of insulin is being marked this year by publications and commemorative events across Canada and around the world. Without doubt, the advent of insulin is worthy of celebration. What bears closer inspection, however, is our use of the term “discovery” in describing the events at the University of Toronto from 1921 to 1923. Michael Bliss’ 1982 book, The Discovery of Insulin, is acclaimed as the definitive account. Until its publication, any Canadian schoolchild likely would have said insulin was discovered by Banting and Best. In painstaking detail, Bliss reconstructed the investigations day by day, dog by dog, and made the case that the insulin discovery actually resulted from the teamwork of Frederick Grant Banting, Charles Herbert Best, James Bertram Collip and John James Rickard Macleod. In the decades since 1982, the less alliteratively appealing, but more accurate formulation of “Banting, Best, Collip and Macleod” has become accepted by scholars. All 4 figures are now reflected in popular accounts, ranging from the graphic on the World Diabetes Day website to the tightly scripted new Heritage Minute video created by Historica Canada.