Churchill's Doctor

J J R Macleod: The Co-discoverer of Insulin. By Michael J Williams (pp 125. £5.00). Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, July 1993 Vol 23 No 3. The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Edinburgh. Much has been written about the events and personalities involved in the discovery of insulin. A television programme on these events used the title "Glory Enough for All". But, either because of the four personalities involved Banting, Best, Collip and Macleod or because the Nobel Prize Committee only recognized two, Banting and Macleod, there ensued more acrimony than this glorious discovery should rightly have created. Despite being a committed supporter of Banting, I have to acknowledge the considerable flaws in his character and this book makes it easier to appreciate the patience and endurance of J J R Macleod. This is a very sympathetic and proud account of Professor Macleod's life, beginning with early schooling in Aberdeen, undergraduate and postgraduate career in Aberdeen and London, leading to his appointment to the Chair of Physiology at Western Reserve University, USA at the startlingly early age of 27 years. Later, when Macleod was in Toronto there was the fateful meeting with Banting on Monday, 8th November 1921. The story continues to the award of the Nobel Prize in Medicine on 25th October 1923. The subsequent distinguished career of Professor Macleod in Toronto, and after 1928 in Aberdeen, is given in sympathetic and proud detail up to his death in 1935. This book is highly commended because of much new detail, carefully annotated, and the overall achievement is a true and lasting tribute to J J R Macleod, Fellow of the Royal Society and Nobel Laureate, and considerable benefactor of humanity. J A WEAVER