History of the Preparation of Insulin - Homemade Insulin, Part 5….Did Eva Saxl mean Bergmann not Beckman ? Hawk's text.

 

 In the book, “Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes”, the author, James Hirsch recounts how Eva Saxl, an insulin diabetic and her husband, Viktor, managed to produce a homemade insulin using information from a medical text called “Beckman’s Internal Medicine”. They did this under duress in World War II in China during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Not only were they able to keep Eva alive with the homemade product but also another 200 diabetics in the Shanghai Ghetto where they lived.

Eva herself retold the story but with no mention of the Beckman’s medical text, shortly after the war, in the 50’s for Edward R. Murrow’s radio broadcast, “This I Believe.” - http://thisibelieve.org/essay/16957/   .  Eva Saxl died in 2002 in Santiago, Chile.

There do not appear to be any records showing such a medical text “Beckman’s Internal Medicine” ever existed either in English or German (Innere Medizin). What does exist are medical textbooks published by Bergmann in Munich at the same time. Especially notable was the volume, “Insulin”, by Grevenstuk and Laquer, published by Bergmann in 1925. The book was written in German. Eva was an accomplished linguist, fluent in 5 languages. It was referenced by J.J.R. Macleod a professor of physiology in Toronto and one of the prominent researchers involved the development of Insulin, in his book “Carbohydrate Metabolism and Insulin”, published in 1926 by Longmans, Green, and Co. Ltd. of London.

Another early researcher of insulin, C.M. Jephcott, published his method for the preparation of insulin in the transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada in 1931. It was referenced by numerous other investigators and authors.

In the 1954 publication of “Practical Physiological Chemistry”, McGraw Hill Book Co., 13th edition, author Philip B. Hawk gives a description of Jephcott’s method of preparation on page 769, under “Experiments on the Pancreas”.

What follows is the excerpt from Hawk’s book for information purposes only and is intended only to relate to the story of the historical development of Insulin.

“1.Preparation of Insulin: Method of Jephcott.¹⁵ To 1 kg. or more of fresh, finely minced beef pancreas, add 4 volumes of extraction liquid, consisting of 750 ml. of ethyl alcohol, 250 ml. of distilled water, and 15 ml. of concentrated hydrochloric acid. Shake or stir for 2 hours at 37^o C. and filter through a double layer of cheesecloth; extract the residues as before. Combine the filtrates and add concentrated ammonia till alkaline to litmus; centrifuge, and discard the precipitate. (Insulin may be precipitated quantitatively by adding 1 ½ volumes of absolute ethyl alcohol and 2 ½ volumes of ether and allowing to stand in the cold.) A purer preparation is obtainable as follows: After centrifuging, drive off the alcohol with a blast of air at 37^o C. and add 40 g. of ammonium sulfate per 100 ml. The precipitate which rises to the top contains the insulin; it is ground with 70 per cent alcohol and filtered. To the filtrate add an equal volume of 95 per cent alcohol, and discard any precipitate which forms; now add 8 volumes of 95 per cent alcohol to precipitate the insulin, which is filtered off and dried, and dissolved in water ( 1 ml. per 10 g. of pancreas ) containing 0.1 per cent tricresol.

2. Effect of Insulin on Blood Sugar. Take a 1-ml. sample of blood for a sugar determination from the marginal ear vein of a 2 –kg. rabbit which has been starved for 24 hours. Then inject subcutaneously 5 to 10 units of insulin. Observe the rabbit carefully for symptoms of hypoglycemia, such as hyperirritability, palpitation of the heart, convulsions, and coma. Another sample of blood should be drawn as soon as distress is evident and a third when the rabbit is in convulsions. To relieve the induced hypoglycemia, inject 10 ml. of 10 per cent glucose solution intravenously. After recovery, take another blood sample for a sugar determination. Compare the blood sugar values. It is also possible to save the animal by injecting 0.5 ml. of 1:1000 epinephrine (adrenaline) subcutaneously after the first convulsions: or convulsions be averted by feeding glucose upon a leaf of lettuce, or by giving glucose by stomach tube or intraperitoneally.”

^“15 Jephcott: Tr. Roy. Soc. Canada, sec. 5, 25, 183 (1931).” [“Extraction of Insulin and Stability of Various Preparations.”] 


History of the Preparation of Insulin - Homemade Insulin, Part 1….Did Eva Saxl mean Bergmann not Beckman ?