Frederick Banting's Misinterpretations of the Work of Ernest L. Scott as Found in Secondary Sources

FREDERICK BANTING'S MISINTERPRETATIONS OF THE WORK OF ERNEST L. SCOTT AS FOUND IN SECONDARY SOURCES WARRENA. SAWYER* The historian's dependence on primary sources is well known. If we accept Barzun and Grafs [1] definition of a primary source as one that "gives the words of the witnesses or first recorders of an event," then Frederick Banting's writings on the discovery of insulin could be considered primary sources since Banting shared the 1923 Nobel Prize for his role in that discovery. This assumes, however, that Banting had an understanding of the work of earlier researchers in the field. Banting's lack of understanding of one early researcher's role in the discovery of insulin and the subsequent appearance of these misunderstandings in secondary sources on Banting and the discovery of insulin are discussed herein. The Work ofE. L. Scott In 1912, Ernest Lyman Scott's master's thesis [2], written under the direction of A. J. Carlson in the Department of Physiology at the University of Chicago, was published in the AmericanJournal ofPhysiology (AJP) under the title "On the Influence of Intravenous Injections of an Extract of the Pancreas on Experimental Pancreatic Diabetes" [3]. The AJP publication became a formal part ofthe literature on pancreatic extracts, while the thesis, entitled "The Effect of Pancreas Extract on Depancreatized Dogs," remained in limbo. As both Dickinson Richards [4] and Lois Magner [5] have pointed out, the published AJP paper omits certain data and alters the conclusions of the unpublished thesis on which it was based. Scott has denied any hand in the editing of the thesis for *Professor and Director of Libraries and Learning Resource Centers, Medical University of South Carolina, 171 Ashley Avenue, Charleston, South Carolina 29425.© 1986 by The University of Chicago. AU rights reserved. 003 1-5982/86/2904-0487$01 .00 Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 29, 4 ¦ Summer 1986 \ 61 1 publication and places this responsibility on A. J. Carlson, chairman of the Department of Physiology at the University of Chicago [6]. Scott's AJP paper, while not as straightforward as his unpublished thesis, contains the following statement: "It was hoped that the presence of the digestive enzymes could be eliminated by the atrophy of the gland which follows complete ligation of the ducts; but after several attempts in the dog which proved futile so far as complete atrophy was concerned , this method was abandoned as impractical. In subsequent work these enzymes were rendered inactive at once by a high percentage ofalcohol and were later killed by long-continued contact with strong alcohol [3]" (italics mine). Dickinson Richards, who was the 1956 Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology, compares Banting, Best, and Collip's patented method of insulin extraction with that of Scott: Here are the steps, in abbreviated form, as set forth in this application (U.S. patent application of Banting, Best, and Collip as filed January 12, 1923), for obtaining "a practically pure extract from the fresh pancreas of mammalia": (1) Mince fresh ox pancreas with equal volume of alcohol; strain and filter. (2) Treat filtrate with 2 volumes of alcohol; stand several hours (most inert protein precipitated). (3) Subject filtrate to vacuum distillation, reducing it to aqueous concentrate. (4) Buffer to pH 4.0 to 7.0. (5) Extract with ether, discard ether. (6) Add alcohol to 80 percent concentration. (7) Centrifuge, take top alcoholic layer. (8) Treat with several volumes of 95 percent alcohol. (9) A late precipitate (insulin) forms, is caught on a Büchner funnel; this then is dissolved in distilled water for use. The essence of the above is that the active principle is soluble in water and in alcohol up to 80 or 85 percent, and is precipitated by 95 percent alcohol. Now compare this with Scott's procedures (from the AJP paper). First method. (1) Fresh gland ground with sand and warm alcohol, extracted with alcohol up to 85 per cent concentration. (2) Filtrate evaporated to dryness in CO2 atmosphere. (3) Extracted with ether, ether discarded. (All right so far: insulin is in dry residue.) (4) Solid dissolved in 95 percent alcohol. (Active principle lost here, did not dissolve in alcohol.) Extract is inactive. Second method...