WORK ON DIABETES SHOWS PROGRESS AGAINST DISEASE
Toronto Medical Men Hoping
That Cure is Close
at Hand.
A BOY IS TREATED
Effect of First Treatment Was
So Good That Injections
Are Continued.
Unkown to the general public the
attention of the research men of
Canada and the United States is turned
upon a little laboratory in the medi- !
cal building of the university. There,
they are hoping, a cure for the baf-
fling disease of diabetes is at last on
the way.
It was as a surprise to Prof. J. J.
R. McLeod to be bombarded this
morning, with the information that
the three Toronto research men had
given a demonstration at New Haven
a few weeks ago, and that already
experimental work had begun on hu-
man beings in the General hospital.
Prof. McLeod did not deny the state-
ment, but warned the interrogator
that the information was exaggerated
and the harm that it would do to
arouse false hope in the thousands of
people who are suffering with this
dread disease.
"We've really no hope to offer any
one at all as yet," the doctor said.
"We don't know anything yet that
would warrant a hope for a cure.
But we are workign intensiveily at the
thing with a hope that some day we
may be able to help on a littl bit
Was Scientific Paper.
It was an entirely scientific paper
that was delivered at New Haven on
December 30, Dr. McLeod said, The
subject was "The Effect of Certain
Extracts on the Percentage of Sugar
in the Blood." The three
research men who went down to Con-
necticut were Prof. McLeod, Dr. F.
G. Banting and Mr. C. H. Best,
young medical fellow in the faculty
of medicine
Although scientific work in
this field of research has been conducted
for 15 years in the laboratories over
which Prof. McLeod has had charge,
It was only last May that Dr. F. C.
Banting and Mr. Best concentrated
upon the new inspiration. All through
the summer the work was ruched
intensively in a little laboratory in
the medical building, facing the west I
in front of the main building. I
Such experiments were not new by means.
With the exception of cancer,
perhaps, no disease has been the
subject of so much research or
more baffling. Hundreds of people
consentrating their efforts in an attempt to
discover the effect of sugar in the
human body in all its aspects. "At
New Haven we were able to report
results that were more definite; that
was all," said Prof. McLeod, modest-
ly "We are working very conserva
tively, striving to awake no false.
hopes." From this American gather-
ing of representative doctors and
scientists, it is understood, there
were no criticism of teh Toronto ex-
periments, but only the highest praise
and intense hope.
Trying Injection on Boy.
It was only a day or two ago that
the first injection of extracts was
given to a human being. This is a,,
boy of thirteen in the General Hospi-
tal, it is understood. So acute
diabetes in young people that v
often hope of recovery is in vain
vas as a last resort that permiss
was granted to the Toronto resea
men to experiment with this boy.
encouraging was the first treatment
it is said, that these will be conting
every day. It Is the aim of those'
engaged upon this research to have
the administration of these extract
finally given by way of the moutth
All through the summer and up to
the present time the experiments
which apparently most closely simu-
lates diabetes in man was obtained
"Diabetes," said Prof. McLeod, "is
a condition in an animal which makes
it incapable of oxidizing sugar, so
that sugar and the starches can no
longer be utilized." It is by extracts
to counteract this condition that a
cure, if there is a cure, will come.
The research work now being
pressed at the University, Dr. Mc-
Leod emphasized, was not begun
with the intention of finding
cure for diabetes. "We are studying
the effect of sugar in the animal body,
in the hope that we will land on
something that will aid against the
disease known as diabetes.
"You won't like the perfume," said
Mr. Best, as he permitted the re-
porter to glance into the room where
the extracts are being made. The
heavy odor of decaying proteins, ap-
parently meat, filled the atmosphere.
Extracts in process of refinement
were boiling in the retorts of a chemi-
cal apparatus.