2023-04-19 06:02:36
Who knows Frederick G. Banting? In the history of public health, this Canadian researcher has left no significant traces, unlike a Louis Pasteur. And yet, he was the co-inventor, in 1921, of one of the most widely used treatments in the world today: insulin. But this surgeon by training very nearly never began his research work. A volunteer in the army of his country, he was seriously wounded in the North, in September 1918, during the last offensives of the First World War.
Amateur historians from a small village in Pas-de-Calais decided to pay homage to him on September 2, at the instigation of a Canadian historian writer, Michel Gravel. A commemorative plaque bearing his name will be unveiled. But why are Dury, its mayor Marc Campbell, and its 300 inhabitants involved in this project? To understand, we have to go back in time to 1918. In September, the British and Canadian allies continued the reconquest of the territories occupied by the Germans since the beginning of the war, in 1914. On September 2, 3 and 4, the battle rages around the village of Dury.
A photo as a clue
“Thanks to the historical work carried out by Michel Gravel, we first discovered that Frederick Banting had taken part in the fighting in the village and, above all, in January, we were able to identify exactly where”, rejoices Fabrice Théry, member of the committee. “Heritage Village” in Dury. It was the photo of a German aid station, taken over by the Canadians on September 2, 1918, which made it possible to validate the cross-checking of information. Because this building with its particular architecture still exists.
“Hundreds of wounded were treated in this center where Banting officiated as a doctor in a field ambulance unit, continues Fabrice Théry. You should know that the battle in the sector cost just over 5,000 Canadian casualties, dead or wounded. “A test for the young officer, aged 27, who had just finished his studies as a surgeon, two years earlier.
It is therefore not far from this building that a commemorative plaque will be unveiled on September 2. An online kitty was opened by Michel Gravel to partially finance this plaque. “These donations will be useful to us because this project represents a significant cost for a small town like ours, which has nevertheless managed to free up a small budget on this occasion”, emphasizes Fabrice Théry.
Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923
But the story of Frederick Banting does not end with Dury. Arrived in France on June 23, 1918, he took part in the Canadian advance before being wounded, on September 28, at Haynecourt, near Cambrai, while trying to help. A shrapnel from a shell pierced his right forearm. The doctor must definitely leave the battlefield.
The sequel is better known. Integrated in the department of diabetes physiology at the University of Toronto, Frederick Banting manages to convince its head, John JR MacLeod, to let him test, in his laboratory, an idea which, according to him, can lead to obtaining a pancreatic extract. active in diabetes mellitus.
Insulin, still considered one of the greatest therapeutic successes, was born. At the time, it was a health revolution. Without treatment, diabetic children died of hunger and thirst after a few months or years. In 1923, only two of them, Frederick Banting and John JR MacLeod, received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for this discovery. They will both be keen to share their prize money with their fellow researchers, Charles Best and James Bertram Collip.
Banting, “a benefactor of mankind”
“Frederick Banting is not only a great researcher, but he is also a benefactor of humanity, emphasizes Fabrice Théry. Instead of filing a patent that would have enriched it, he offered it, for a symbolic dollar, to the University of Toronto, allowing rapid deployment of the treatment. »
Frederick Banting died in 1941, aged 50. “He was leaving for Great Britain to carry out a scientific mission for the benefit of the Allies, specifies Fabrice Théry. His plane, caught in terrible weather conditions, crashed on the island of Newfoundland. He was surely far from suspecting that in 1973, a crater on the moon would be named after him and that his work would still be remembered today in a village in France, so far from his home.
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