Realigning history: The Toronto Four insulin discovery team.

Abstract

This article relates to the discovery and deployment of the world's first clinically useful insulin in Toronto more than 100 years ago. It addresses the propagation of a false account of how this breakthrough was achieved and the controversy that ensued leading to a diminution of the contribution of the Scottish academic leader of the discovery team. It describes how, despite the advent - some 60 years later - of a meticulously compiled and definitive history of what really happened in Toronto, the traditional account has proved resistant to correction. It concludes with a description of a spectacular memorial project in Aberdeen restoring the reputation of Professor JJR Macleod, and going on to respectfully reunite 'the Toronto Four'.