The Race for A Cure: Diabetes Doctors, Their Remedies and Their Publications

Between the late 18th and early 20th centuries, competing diabetologists in Britain claimed to have found cures for the disease. For instance, in 1806 Henry Fraser of Edinburgh imposed no diet restrictions except vegetables on his diabetic patients but dosed them liberally with laudanum. His colleague George Alley also forbade vegetables, but used cinchona (quinine)to stem the flow of diabetic urine. Edward Omerod measured the liquid intake and outgo of his patients, then experimented with creasote in varying amounts. John Camplin prescribed bran cakes for his patients, publishing a recipe for making them and recommending bakers in London who would provide them. Hugh Campbell asserted that a salycylic treatment would alleviate diabetes, which he blamed on injuries to the head, especially among red-headed men. These doctors trumpeted their cures in book and article form, often in widely-read popular manuals for good health. Though often far off the mark, early diabetologists from all over Britain kept public and scientific attention aware of the need to find the source and treatment of the malady.