Breakthrough

Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle

Thea Cooper, Arthur Ainsberg

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780312648701
• eBook ISBN: 9781429965699
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: 20th Century History

An "inspirational" account of how a young girl plight's "launched a boon for diabetics the world over . . . A remarkable story . . . worthy reading" ( Booklist).
It is 1919 and Elizabeth Hughes, the eleven-year-old daughter of America's most-distinguished jurist and politician, Charles Evans HugheAs, has been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. It is essentially a death sentence. The only accepted form of treatment—starvation—whittles her down to forty-five pounds of skin and bones. Miles away, Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best manage to identify and purify insulin from animal pancreases—a miracle soon marred by scientific jealousy, intense business competition and fistfights. In a race against time and a ravaging disease, Elizabeth becomes one of the first diabetics to receive insulin injections—all while its discoverers and a little known pharmaceutical company struggle to make it available to the rest of the world.
Relive the heartwarming true story of the discovery of insulin as it's never been told before. Written with authentic detail and suspense, and featuring walk-ons by William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Eli Lilly himself, among many others.
"[A] fascinating tale of Nobel Prize–winning research. . . . This book is an important read for anyone with diabetes. It is an enjoyable read for those who love mystery and human drama." —Kenneth T. Jackson, Barzun Professor of History, Columbia University

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Prologue
• 1 Christ Church Cranbrook, Bloomfi eld Hills, Michigan, 1981
• 2 Fifth Avenue, New York City, April 1919
• 3 The Breakfast Room of the Home of Charles Evans Hughes, New York City, April 1919
• 4 The Library of the Home of Charles Evans Hughes, New York City, April 1919
• 5 New York City, April 1919, Later That Afternoon
• 6 Toronto, Canada, and Cambrai, France, 1917–1918
• 7 War, Peace, and Politics, 1914–1918
• 8 Glens Falls, New York, April 1920
• 9 The Idea of the Physiatric Institute, May 1920
• 10 Banting’s House in London, Ontario, October 30–31, 1920
• 11 Toronto or Bust, October 1920 to April 1921
• 12 Presidential Politics, 1916 and 1920
• 13 The Physiatric Institute, Morristown, New Jersey, 1921
• 14 The University of Toronto, Summer 1921
• 15 Washington, D.C., and Bolton, New York, March to September 1921
• 16 The Washington Conference, November 12, 1921, to February 6, 1922
• 17 The Physiatric Institute, Morristown, New Jersey, November 1921
• 18 The University of Toronto, September to December 1921
• 19 The Crossroads of America, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1919–1921
• 20 The American Physiological Society Meeting, New Haven, Connecticut, December 28–30, 1921
• 21 Success and Failure, The University of Toronto, January 1922
• 22 Failure and Success, The University of Toronto, February to April 1922
• 23 Honeymoon Cottage, Hamilton, Bermuda, January to July 1922
• 24 Patents, Partnership, and Pancreases, Indianapolis and Toronto, April to August 1922
• 25 Fame and Famine, Summer 1922
• 26 Four Trunks, Washington, D.C., August 1922
• 27 Escape from Morristown, August 1922
• 28 The Transformation Begins, Toronto, August to November 1922
• 29 Crossing the Line Aboard the SS Pan America, August to September 1922
• 30 Fate, Fortune, and Forgetting, September to December 1922
• 31 The Nobel Prize and Beyond
• 32 The Emergence of Elizabeth Gossett
• Postscript: Diabetes and Insulin Today
• Notes and Sources
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• Index