How Did a Dog Named Marjorie Help Prove Insulin Could Save Lives?
Marjorie was one of the diabetic dogs Frederick Banting and Charles Best kept alive with pancreatic extract in 1921, and her survival of about 70 days showed the extract could sustain life, not just lower blood sugar for a few hours. That result helped justify the first human trial in January 1922. This 2018 paper by historian Matthew Klingle, published in Environmental History, looks back at the dogs behind the discovery.
Dr. Kumar’s Take
The insulin story is usually told as a story about two men. This paper opens instead with a dog. In two photographs from August 1921, Best and Banting stand relaxed on the roof of the University of Toronto’s Medical Building. Between them is a small collie with its ears back and its tail tucked. It has no name, only a number: Dog 408. Every person who has lived on insulin since 1922 owes something to animals like that one.
Key Findings
- The dog in the famous rooftop photographs is Dog 408, a small collie, photographed with Best and Banting in August 1921.
- On August 3, 1921, Banting removed Dog 408’s pancreas to make it diabetic.
- Dog 408 was kept alive with injections of pancreatic extract made from fetal calves, and died four days later.
- Banting and Best did this work in what the paper calls a “smelly, dirty garret” at the top of the Medical Building, through the summer heat.
Brief Summary
In the summer of 1921, Banting and Best removed the pancreas from dogs to make them diabetic, then tested whether extracts of pancreas could keep them alive. Early animals like Dog 408 lived only days. Later in 1921, a dog named Marjorie lived about 70 days on the extract, the longest survival in their experiments. That made the case for trying the extract in a person, and in January 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson became the first patient treated with insulin in Toronto.
Study Design
This is a historical essay, not an experiment. The author works from the lab’s records and photographs to retell the insulin discovery through the dogs that were used in it.
Results You Can Use
The early dog experiments established ideas that still shape diabetes care. Without a pancreas, the body cannot control blood sugar. An extract of pancreas could replace that missing function. And the replacement had to be given again and again, because it did not cure the disease.
Why This Matters For Health And Performance
Insulin turned type 1 diabetes from a death sentence into a manageable condition within a few years of these experiments. The dogs made that possible. Knowing the history also explains why insulin is a replacement therapy: it does the job the pancreas can no longer do, every day.
How to Apply These Findings in Daily Life
- Understand that insulin therapy replaces a missing hormone and has to be taken consistently
- Appreciate the animal research foundation underlying modern diabetes treatment
- Learn about the historical development of treatments you or loved ones depend on
- Advocate for continued research into diabetes complications and better treatments
Limitations To Keep In Mind
This is a history paper, so it tells a story rather than testing a hypothesis. The 1921 extracts were crude and impure, and the dog model differs from human type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune disease. Early human injections caused reactions until the extract was purified further.
Related Studies
- The Internal Secretion of the Pancreas
- Frederick Banting: Discoverer of Insulin
- History of Insulin
- Episode 24: The Discovery of Insulin
FAQs
What happened to Dog 408?
Banting removed Dog 408’s pancreas on August 3, 1921, to make it diabetic. The dog was kept alive with injections of extract from fetal calf pancreas, but died four days later.
Was the animal research ethical by today’s standards?
The 1921 experiments followed the limited rules of their era. Today, surgery on animals like this would require extensive review and approval, with strict limits on pain and suffering.
How many dogs were used in the insulin experiments?
Dozens of dogs were used over the course of the work. Many died early on, as Banting and Best refined their surgery and their extracts.
Conclusion
Marjorie’s 70 days on pancreatic extract showed that diabetes could be treated rather than merely endured. This paper is a reminder that Dog 408 and the other dogs, most of them unnamed, are part of that story too.
