December 8, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



665 



QUOTATIONS 

 INSULIN AS A CURE FOR DIABETES 



On anat'her page v/e print an important 

 communication from tlie Medical Research 

 Council relating to a promising remedy for 

 diabetes recently discovered at Toivsnto. Dia- 

 betes is one of tihe more serious afflictions of 

 mankind, insidious in its beginnings, debili- 

 tating in its course, and often fatal. At pres- 

 ent the treatmenit is li'ttle more than ajn effort to 

 prolong life by a regimen of habit and diet so 

 arduous as to make it very irksome. Dr. Y. B. 

 Banting, a young physician attached to the 

 University of Toronto, acting on the known 

 fact that extirpation of the pancreas in dogs is 

 followed by a diaibetic condition, thought it 

 possible that the secretion discharged into the 

 blood by tlhat gland might be the factor 

 inhibiting the onset of .the disease, and that its 

 administration in some fomi might prove a 

 remedy. Experimental work confirmed his 

 theory, which has, in fact, ibeen thought proba- 

 ble for many years. A substance, to which the 

 name "insulin" has been given, extracted from 

 the pancreas of the ox, pig or sheep, when 

 injected into the veins of human diabetic 

 patients has frequently given quick relief, and 

 has appeared to lead towards cure. But the 

 remedy ds still in an early stage. The exiact 

 constitution of insulin, as, indeed, of many 

 other of the subtler animal essences, is still un- 

 known; its preparation demands high skill and 

 special methods; its administration must be 

 watched by expert physicians. In the opinion 

 of the medical faculty of the University of 

 Toronto, of their American colleagues and of 

 representatives of our own Medical Research 

 Council, any premature exploitation of insulin 

 might gravely disappoint the public, and even 

 prevent the ripening of the hopes of these high 

 authorities. It has therefore been decided to 

 protect and control its manufacture and use 

 in the United States and in Canada. Similar 

 protection and control in this eounti*y have 

 been offered to and accepted by the Medical 

 Research Council. To protect the public and 

 to perfect a great boon are objects wlhich com- 

 mand respect. But while recognizing that spe- 

 cial circumstances may in this case justify it, 

 we are not entirely reassured alxiut the meth- 



od — a feeling that seems to have given an 

 apologetic tone to the communication issued 

 by the Medical Research Council. For it is 

 proposed to patent the reanedy — a course ex- 

 cluded from the jtvaidtiiee of the Pasteur Insti- 

 tute. Pasteur and Metchriikov determined ithat 

 their discoveries should be offered as a free gift 

 to the world, altihough tihe possibilities of 

 fraudulent or foolish exploitation by others, 

 of mistaken use, and even of employing the 

 revenue from patents for further research were 

 present to their minds. — The London Times. 



JUSTICE FOR THE PUEBLO INDIANS 



In formally proitestrng against the passage 

 of the Bursum Pueblo Indian Bill the American 

 Ethnological Society took account only of the 

 plain facts. It is a thoix)ughly vicious measure, 

 designed to put a premium on fraud and to 

 connnit the United States government to a 

 sweeping raid on the lands and water rights 

 of the New Mexico Indians. ■ The council of 

 the Peaibody Museum of American Archeology 

 and Ethnology of Harvard uses very moderate 

 language when it calls public attention to "the 

 iniquity and hardship" of the bill to the end 

 that it be defeated. 



The Bursum bill was put through the Senate 

 on the strength of misleading statements. The 

 scheme could not be worked again. Full pub- 

 licity would prevent it. For a little publicity 

 has already rallied to the support of the cause 

 of the Pueblo Indians disinterested persons and 

 organizations that will not desert them or be 

 lulled to sleep as the Senate was. 



These Indians, living peacefully in some 

 twenty tribal groups, have 'been steadily 

 crowded off lands confinned to them by the 

 United States government iby outsiders having 

 no valid titles. The government is bound to 

 protect them as its wards, but it has failed 

 to do so. 



But as it turns out, the Pueblo Indians, 

 though voteless, are not friendless. It is a 

 wholesome sign that before they bad united in 

 voicing their own protest against the Bursum 

 bill, friends from many quarters had volun- 

 teered assistance and accepted the iburden of 

 the fight in their behalf. Congress and the 

 administration can not afford to be indiifl'erent 



