At the time of Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953, diabetes was still relatively uncommon. In the young the situation was profoundly depressing. Those whose lives had been saved by insulin in the previous 30 years were now succumbing to blindness, kidney failure and heart attacks for which there was no treatment. Clinics were poorly organised, patchily distributed and, except in major cities, run by general physicians with no training in the management of chronic disease. Yet, in the five years after the coronation, the seeds of many future advances including the delineation of diabetic angiopathy, photocoagulation and diabetes specialist nurses were sown by pioneers whose work went largely unrecognised at the time.
This phrase was taken from an excellent article by Chris Feudtner.Feudtner C.A disease in motion: diabetes history and the new paradigm of transmuted disease. Persp Biol Med1996;39:158-70.
2.
The definitive account is Michael Bliss.The Discovery of Insulin. University of Chicago Press, 1982.
3.
Wagener HF, Dry TJS, Wilder RMRetinitis in diabetes. N Engl J Med1934;211:1131-7.
4.
Rabinowitch IMPrevention of premature arteriosclerosis in diabetes mellitus. Can Med Assoc J1944;51:300-06.
5.
Reuting REProgress notes on fifty diabetic patients followed 25 or more years . Arch Intern Med1950;86:891-7.
6.
Lundbaek K.Long-term Diabetes: The Clinical Picture in Diabetes Mellitus of 15-25 years duration with a follow up of a regional series of cases. Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard. London, Lange, Maxwell and Springer. 1953.
7.
Lundbaek K.Diabetic Angiopathy; a specific vascular disease. Lancet1954;1:377-9.
8.
Tattersall RBThe quest for normoglycaemia: an historical perspective. Diabetic Medicine1994;11:618-35.
9.
Walker GFReflections on diabetes mellitus: answers to a questionary. Lancet1953;2:1329-32.
10.
Malins JMClinical Diabetes Mellitus. London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1968. p 455.
11.
Hugo Droller .An outbreak of hepatitis in a diabetic clinic . BMJ1945;I: 623-5.
12.
Dolger H.Clinical evaluation of vascular damage in diabetes mellitus. J Am Med Assoc1947;134:1289-91.
13.
Poulsen JEThe Houssay phenomenon in man: recovery from retinopathy in a case of diabetes with Simmond's disease. Diabetes1953;2:7-12. The final course and postmortem results are in Diabetes 1966;15:73-7. The Houssay phenomenon is increased insulin sensitivity after hypophysectomy. Simmond's disease is pituitary infarction and is named after the German pathologist Moritz Simmonds (1855-1925).
14.
Luft R., Olivecrona H.Experiences with hypophysectomy in man. J Neurosurg1953;10:301-16.
15.
Luft R., Olivecrona H., Ikkos D., Kornerup T., Ljunggren H.Hypophysectomy in man: further experiences in severe diabetes mellitus . BMJ1955;ii:752-6.
16.
The effect of solar light on the retina had been known for centuries and Socrates mentioned the danger of looking directly at the sun during an eclipse and suggested viewing its reflection in water. In 1912 an eclipse on a cloudless day caused hundreds of macular burns in Europe.
17.
Meyer-Schwickerath G.New indications for light coagulation. Versam Deutsch Ophth Ges1956;60:197.
18.
Meyer-Schwicherath GRE.Ophthalmology and photography. Am J Ophthalmol1968;66:1011-19.
19.
Walker JBField work of a diabetic clinic. Lancet1953 ;2:445-7.
