Canadian Profile - Sir Frederick Banting
By: Tanya Mackinnon

Sir Frederick Banting is a man who it must be said, changed the world. This Canadian physician discovered a treatment for people suffering with a, then, deadly disease that we know as diabetes. As a society, we are familiar with this disease and recognize that many individuals receive daily injections of insulin. In this month's Canadian Profile, Bacon Magazine examines a great man who did so much for so many in such a short life. He was a man who used intuition and hard work to solve a medical quandary that was baffling theoreticians for years. Banting was a man who asked more of himself than others ask, was headstrong, stubborn, kind, gentle and powerfully loyal to his friends and colleagues. He was a proud Canadian whose life was shaped by international events, WWI and WWII, and consequently his values and outlook on life were shaped by these conflicts. Not only was he a physician but also an artist who painted, sketched, and wrote stories. He was even part of a government expedition to the Arctic where he painted Canada's North. So without further ado, let us delve into the life of this Canadian hero.

On November 14, 1891 in Alliston, Ontario, William Thompson Banting & Margaret Grant welcomed their sixth child. Their fifth son was to be named Frederick Grant Banting. He was born on the family homestead in the front downstairs bedroom of the farmhouse.

Banting grew up in Alliston attending public school and high school there. He was an average student who hated spelling. He lived on a farm in the country and grew up with an appreciation and love for nature. Banting and his brothers helped their father in the barn, worked with the animals, and were encouraged to be inquisitive and question the death of any animal. Banting's chores included gathering eggs, feeding the cows, bedding the cattle, and carrying firewood. Banting and his brothers benefited from this work and instruction and they became resourceful, persistence, caring young men.

Banting went to the University of Toronto with the intention of studying divinity but he transferred to medicine soon after. Graduating with above-average marks in 1916 he received his M.B. degree. Banting took this first degree and entered the Canadian Army Medical Corps to serve his country in France during World War I. In 1918, he was wounded at the battle of Cambri, but he continued to deliver care to wounded soldiers. The following year Banting received the Military Cross for bravery under fire.

The war ended and so did Banting's medical duties. He returned to Canada and practised medicine for a short time in London, Ontario. From 1919 to 1920, Banting studied orthopaedic medicine and was Resident Surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. The following year, Banting taught orthopaedics part time at the University of Western in London in conjunction with his medical practice. This was the beginning of his esteemed medical career. Although to Banting, it seemed like a long road ahead. After only a month in his London medical practice, he had had one patient and only four dollars on the books. Finances were tight. From 1921 to 1922, Banting was Lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Toronto. In 1922, he received his M.D. degree with a gold medal.

Prior to his medical degree, Banting had become interested in diabetes. Research conducted by various individuals suggested that diabetes was caused by lack of a protein hormone that is secreted by the islands of Langerhans in the pancreas. Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski discovered in 1889 that the removal of the pancreas in dogs had caused severe diabetes. The pancreas controlled glucose metabolism by generating a hormone they named insulin. All their attempts to extract it had failed, likely because the proteolytic enzyme of the pancreas had destroyed the protein insulin. Insulin was believed to control the metabolism of sugar. The lack of insulin would result in the accumulation of sugar in the blood. The problem was how to extract the insulin from the pancreas before it would be destroyed.

Banting was pondering this problem while reading an article by Moses Baron in the medical journal Surgery, Gynaecology, and Obstetrics. He had been reading the journal because he wanted to give his first year medical students the latest research and he was not satisfied with the lecture he had written. It detailed that in conducted experiments, when ligatures closed the pancreatic duct, cells of the pancreas that secrete trypsin deteriorate yet the islands of Langerhans remain undamaged. After sleeping for a few hours, Banting woke up and scribbled down "Ligate pancreas ducts of dogs. Wait 6 to 8 weeks for degeneration. Remove residue and extract." This brainstorm on the eve of October 30th at his home in London, Ontario would lead to Banting formulating a hypothesis. (The home where Banting discovered the way to isolate insulin is now the Banting Museum and Education Centre. In the front of this house burns a flame of hope for a cure to diabetes and when that cure is found the flame will be snuffed out.)

He was a surgeon without research experience so Banting wanted to investigate his hypothesis and first consulted a number of professors at the University of Western in London. Facilities were lacking, as the new medical school was not complete so he was referred to Toronto. J.J.R. MacLeod, Professor of Physiology at University of Toronto, provided Banting with the facilities to conduct the necessary experiments. He appointed Charles Best, a medical student, to assist Banting in his research. This was the beginning of a groundbreaking medical discovery. On May 17, 1921 the research began and they quickly moved into clinical research.

The experiments were conducted in what we would call a crude manner today. In the beginning, they performed experiments on dogs and rabbits. Banting did all of the surgeries. They compared dogs that had their pancreatic duct tied off with those that had the pancreas removed. The shrunken pancreas was removed from the dogs with their pancreatic duct tied and the gland was ground with normal saline added. The dogs were now diabetic but when injected with the mixture and blood samples taken, they found that the experiment had worked. Banting's idea was not deemed as physiologically correct but their results were encouraging so more experiments continued to build evidence. When MacLeod returned from Europe in September, he found accurate results but was not happy with the method of injection, as it was taking too long. He wanted more testing with animals but they required large quantities of pancreases so they went to a slaughterhouse returning with nine fetal pancreases from calves. The foetuses proved to be a reliable source and the blood sugar level reduced. However, when it was injected into a human patient they found the blood sugar level lowered but it also caused an abscess at the site of the injection. MacLeod asked J.B. Collip for help in purifying the insulin. It did not take this biochemist long to purify insulin for clinical use.

In early 1922, the discovery of insulin was made. The team consisted of Banting, MacLeod, Best and Collip. However, Banting is known as the primary discoverer of insulin because he had started the project and saw it through to the end. They had discovered that insulin must be injected into the muscle when used clinically as it is partially digested if administered orally. If insulin were combined with protamine it would prolong the period of absorption of the hormone.

Individuals of the medical community were not quick to congratulate Banting on his success. On December 30, 1921 Banting presented a paper entitled 'The Beneficial Influences of Certain Pancreatic Extracts on Pancreatic Diabetes', that summarized his work to this point at a session of the American Physiological Society at Yale University. He was new to the medical community and his research did not follow conventional physiological theories. There was little support. After a lot of looking and negotiating on May 30, 1922 Eli Lilly and Company and the University of Toronto entered into a deal for the mass production of insulin in North America.

Macleod and Banting were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine/physiology in 1923. They were the first Canadians to receive this honour. At the outset, Banting threatened to refuse the award because he felt that his assistant's (Charles Best) work had been invaluable to the success of the project, he believed that Best should be included in the honour. In the end, Banting accepted the honour and shared his prize winnings with Best. In his honour, Banting was named the head of a new department called The Banting and Best Department of Medical Research at the University of Toronto. Here, Banting dealt with the problems of silicosis, cancer, and the mechanism of drowning.

Suddenly, Banting had gained international popularity. Thousands of letters poured in from children with diabetes pledging their eternal gratitude. Banting received the L.L.D. degree from Queens to accompany his medical degree. He received the Reeve Prize from the University of Toronto in 1922. In 1923, the Canadian Parliament granted Banting a Life Annuity of $7,500. He was appointed to numerous academies and societies in Canada and abroad including Honorary Consulting Physician at three different Ontario hospitals and the Chair of Medical Research. In 1934, he was knighted. It was a far cry from where Banting stood at the beginning of his research project. The family farm had been profitable and Banting's father was able to give his children the gift of money when they left home. Banting used his money for education but by the summer of 1921 it had run out. His father covered his loans. When research started on Banting's insulin hypothesis in the summer of 1921, his father and brother Thompson helped to fund the research, as Banting received no salary for his time or work. Banting's financial woes illustrate the failings of the Canadian research establishment at this time as it was littered with interpersonal jealousies, territoriality, and the inability of the medical and bureaucratic establishments to support young researchers. He was an outsider who was initially shunned by the establishment and was forced to turn elsewhere to obtain funding that the early research depended on.

At the age of 30, Banting had discovered insulin and its treatment. He continued with his medical career and married his first wife, Marian Robertson, a few years after they had met at the Christie Street Military Hospital in Toronto. In 1929 his son William Robertson Banting was born. Three years later, they divorced and William would visit his father on weekends. In 1937, Banting remarried. Henrietta Ball was a woman who had been working with him researching tuberculosis and chemotherapy. They would not have any children of their own so when William moved in with them in 1938 the family unit was complete.

They would only be a happy family for a couple years. Banting re-joined the army as the threat of WWII loomed. He wished his family well, told his son to be good and work hard at school. The next morning he left for Ottawa and never made it home. He died in a plane crash that was on route to England where he was destined to take a wartime post as he had volunteered to be an officer in the medical corps.

Banting had found a treatment for diabetes. It was a life-saving treatment that would help thousands throughout the world. Before the insulin treatment, patients with diabetes were destined to a short life with unpleasantness, pain, unquenchable thirst, excessive drinking and frequent urination, nausea, and restlessness. Life for these patients was described as hopeless. A starvation diet did prolong life by a few months but generally, patients could expect 2 to 3 years of life before dying from the effect of the disease or the effects of starvation. Banting's discovery changed the prognosis. It was no longer a question of when you would die but instead the quality of life you could have.

Today, diabetes affects more than 135 million people worldwide and the total is expected to reach 300 million by 2025. According to Health Canada, more than two and quarter million Canadians are estimated to have diabetes and about one-third are unaware they suffer from the condition. Diabetes is a chronic disease that has no cure. It is the seventh leading cause of death by disease in Canada. There are three types of diabetes. Type 1 which occurs when the pancreas no longer produces any (or little) insulin and about 10% of those with diabetes have this type. Type 2 occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or does not produce it effectively and about 90% of those with diabetes have Type 2. Gestational diabetes is a temporary condition that occurs during pregnancy. Today people with diabetes can expect to live active, independent and vital lives if they make a lifelong commitment to careful management of the disease though education, meal planning, exercise, healthy weight, medication, and lifestyle management. Banting was a lifesaver for those suffering from the disease during his lifetime and for millions more in subsequent generations.

To donate to the Canadian Diabetes Association follow the link below and complete the requested form.

For more information on Banting and Diabetes refer to:





Michael Bliss. Banting: A Biography. 2nd paperback ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.
Michael Bliss. The Discovery of Insulin. 2nd paperback ed. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996.
Stephen Eaton Hume. Frederick Banting: Hero, Healer, Artist. Montreal, PQ: XYZ Publishing, 2001.
Michael Webb. Frederick Banting: Superstar of Sciences. C.C.L. Corporation.