48 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



secretion which has to do with metabolism. It is pan- 

 creatic secretion from which the digestive agents have 

 been removed. I need scarcely say to this very intelli- 

 gent audience that it is, in a certain sense, a cure for di- 

 abetes. 



During the past year, progress in insulin experimenta- 

 tion and therapy has gone forward in two directions. 

 First, there has been a considerably promotional effect — 

 philanthropic, professional and commercial — to bring in- 

 sulin into more general use. Second, much experience — 

 clinical and experimental — tending to show the place of 

 insulin in therapeutics, has been accumulated. 



This experience shows that insulin is a remedy for 

 emergencies. Given to a patient in coma, or suffering 

 from acidosis, or in straits from diabetes, it acts like 

 magic. For patients making the long pull — the day in 

 and day out battle to hold diabetes in check and succeed- 

 ing fairly satisfactorily — it is not indicated. 



It appears that it may find a place in the treatment of 

 other metabolic disorders, some of which have not been 

 suspected of having any relation to disease in the pan- 

 creas, or to the functioning of that organ. 



It is noted that the diabetes morbidity and mortality 

 rates are both apparently on the increase, and the in- 

 crease has been at its maximum since the use of insulin 

 became somewhat general. The diabetes death rate in 

 1920 was 16.1 ; in 1921 it was 16.8. To the experienced 

 person this merely means that the publicity given dia- 

 betes and its treatment by insulin has uncovered cases 

 and deaths due to diabetes which would have been over- 

 looked otherwise. The same phenomenon was noticed 

 with consumption, diphtheria, malaria, syphilis and other 

 diseases. 



GOITKE 



The term is used to denote increase in size or in func- 

 tional activity of the thyroid gland. Prior to 1923, the 

 prevalence of goitre in the United States, the variation 

 in that prevalence in different sections of the country, 

 and the parallel variation in the amount of iodine in the 

 water of different sections of the country, has been es- 

 tablished. 1928-1924 has been characterized by an ex- 



