The discovery of insulin
By: Michael Bliss.
Edition: 25th anniversary ed.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Chicago, IL
Language: eng
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780226058993
Description: When insulin was discovered in the early 1920s, even jaded professionals marveled at how it brought starved, sometimes comatose diabetics back to life. In this now-classic study, Michael Bliss unearths a wealth of material, ranging from scientists' unpublished memoirs to the confidential appraisals of insulin by members of the Nobel Committee. He also resolves a longstanding controversy dating to the awarding of the Nobel to F.G. Banting and J.J.R. Macleod for their work on insulin: because each insisted on sharing the credit with an additional associate, medical opinion was intensely divided over the allotment of credit for the discovery. Bliss also offers a wealth of new detail on such subjects as the treatment of diabetes before insulin and the life-and-death struggle to manufacture it.