View the “Toronto Four” Symposium videos, University of Aberdeen, 6 September 2024
Club members John Dirks, Peter Kopplin, Christopher Rutty and Alison Li, along with colleagues Gary Goldberg, Erling Norrby of Stockholm and James Wright of Calgary and partners Christine Kopplin, Andrea Rutty, and Elsebeth Welander-Berggren were warmly welcomed to Aberdeen by John Otto and Kimberlie Hamilton, co-founders of the JJR Macleod Memorial Statue Society, and by our good friend Kenneth McHardy.
Club member Dr Christopher Rutty lends his expertise to this new article “Elizabeth Hughes, a menina que sobreviveu à ‘terapia da fome’ — e foi salva pela insulina” (“Elizabeth Hughes, the girl who survived ‘starvation therapy’ — and was saved by insulin”) in BBC News Brasil about Elizabeth Hughes and early diabetes management. As a young girl, Hughes was one of the first people with diabetes to receive insulin from Dr Frederick Banting. (This article is in Portuguese but if you wish to read it in English, you might use Google Translate.)
Chris Rutty explains that Hughes “became a researcher of the very disease she had,” and that in addition to being the daughter of US Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, and to being at the right place at the right time, “she was very brilliant, intelligent, and committed.” Chris also explains that she was ground-breaking, as “one of the first people with diabetes to inject herself with insulin — something that is now routinely done by millions of patients with the disease around the world.”
Chris also relates the fact that the late historian Michael Bliss, also a club member, met Hughes when he was researching his book The Discovery of Insulin (1982). She was a very private individual and initially hesitant to speak about her experience, but came to understand the importance of her story. She allowed all the the materials to be released after her death.
A striking portrait of Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta (1825-1890) was unveiled November 7, 2024 at a celebration held in Seeley Hall, Trinity College, University of Toronto. Dr Augusta was a physician, army officer, hospital administrator, professor, and a life-long activist fighting racism and segregation. He was the first Black officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, the first Black hospital administrator, and the first Black medical professor in the United States.
Augusta was born in Norfolk, Virginia but arrived in Toronto and enrolled in medicine at Trinity College in 1853 after he was refused admission to medical school in the US. He became the first Black medical student in Canada West and was awarded his medical degree in 1860. While in Toronto, he opened a drugstore on Yonge Street and later a private practice as surgeon. As president of an organization to advance education among the Black community, he provided books and school supplies to Black children. During the American Civil War, he returned to the US and was commissioned as major and served as the first Black physician in the Union Army. In 1868, he was appointed to the faculty of Howard University.
Club member Christopher Rutty is featured in this fascinating story that appears in today’s Globe & Mail. Dr Rutty is resident historian and manager of the Sanofi Toronto archives where an 80-year old bottle in a museum display-case provided striking evidence of the value of freeze-dried blood serum.
Ivan Semeniuk has an excellent article in today’s Globe & Mail titled “Prize Fight: One century later, experts revisit the hidden feud behind Canada’s First Nobel,” describing the complex history behind the award to Banting and Macleod for the discovery of insulin. Semeniuk attended the symposium hosted by the Toronto Medical Historical Club last month and describes the hidden tensions among the key figures as well as the evolution of the story of the discovery over the past 100 years. Several speakers at the symposium, John Dirks, James Wright, and Ken McHardy, are interviewed in the article.
