42 Facts About Frederick Banting

Sir Frederick Grant Banting was a Canadian pharmacologist, orthopedist, and field surgeon.

When he and Macleod received the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Frederick Banting shared the honours and award money with Best.

Frederick Banting was born on November 14,1891, in his family's farmhouse in Essa, Ontario, two miles from nearby Alliston.

Frederick Banting was the youngest of five children of William Thompson Banting, a farmer in Tecumseh, and Margaret Grant, the daughter of a mill manager.

Frederick Banting passed physics and chemistry during junior matriculation examinations in 1909, but repeated English and was required to undertake French and Latin.

Frederick Banting stated on his application to university that he wished to be a teacher, although he harbored aspirations of becoming a doctor.

Frederick Banting toured the Canadian West for the summer, traveling to Winnipeg and Calgary, before enrolling at the University of Toronto, where he entered the General Arts course at Victoria College.

Frederick Banting petitioned to join the medical program in February 1912 and was accepted.

Frederick Banting attempted to enter the Canadian Expeditionary Force on August 16,1914, the day after Canada's declaration of war, and then again in October, but was refused twice due to poor vision.

Frederick Banting trained at a camp at Niagara Falls for the summer before his fourth year of school.

Under the guidance of Clarence L Starr, the chief surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children, Banting gained training as an undergraduate house surgeon.

On May 2,1917, Frederick Banting assumed a position as Starr's assistant.

For thirteen months, Frederick Banting assisted Starr, a pioneer of nerve suturing, at Granville Hospital.

The 44th Battalion, 4th Canadian Division, where Frederick Banting served, were engaged at the Battle of Cambrai in 1918.

Later, Frederick Banting was struck by shrapnel from an exploding shell, ultimately ending his frontline duty.

Frederick Banting returned to Canada after the war and went to Toronto to complete his surgical training.

Frederick Banting was unable to gain a place on the hospital staff and so he decided to move to London, Ontario, to set up a medical practice.

Frederick Banting had to give a talk on the pancreas to one of his classes at the University of Western Ontario on November 1,1920, and he was therefore reading reports that other scientists had written.

Frederick Banting realized that this procedure would destroy the trypsin-secreting cells but not the insulin.

Frederick Banting discussed this approach with John Macleod, professor of physiology at the University of Toronto.

In November 1921, Frederick Banting hit upon the idea of obtaining insulin from the fetal pancreas.

Frederick Banting removed the pancreases from fetal calves at a William Davies slaughterhouse and found the extracts to be just as potent as those extracted from the dog pancreases.

In spring of 1922, Frederick Banting established a private practice in Toronto and began to treat diabetic patients.

Frederick Banting was appointed Senior Demonstrator in Medicine at the University of Toronto in 1922.

Frederick Banting served as Honorary Consulting Physician to the Toronto General, the Hospital for Sick Children, and the Toronto Western Hospital.

Frederick Banting headed the RCAF's Number 1 Clinical Investigation Unit, which was housed in a secret facility on the grounds of the former Eglinton Hunt Club in Toronto.

Frederick Banting helped Wilbur Franks with the invention of the G-suit to stop pilots from blacking out when they were subjected to g-forces while turning or diving.

Frederick Banting even tested the gas and antidotes on himself to see if they were effective.

Jackson, Frederick Banting realized that crew or passengers on board the Hudson's Bay Company paddle wheeler SS Distributor were responsible for spreading the influenza virus down the Slave River and Mackenzie River, a virus that had over the summer and autumn spread territory-wide, devastating the aboriginal population of the north.

Frederick Banting was angry at the leak, having promised the Department of the Interior not to make any statements to the press prior to clearing them.

Frederick Banting stated that the reporter had betrayed his confidence, but did not retract his statement and reaffirmed that HBC was responsible for the death of indigenous residents by supplying the wrong kind of food and introducing diseases into the Arctic.

Frederick Banting maintained this position in his report to the Department of the Interior:.

Frederick Banting developed an interest in painting beginning around 1921 while he was in London, Ontario.

Jackson and Frederick Banting made painting expeditions to Great Slave Lake, Walsh Lake, Georgian Bay, French River and the Sudbury District.

At the time of his death in 1941, Frederick Banting was one of Canada's best-known amateur painters.

Frederick Banting was en route to England to conduct operational tests on the Franks flying suit developed by his colleague Wilbur Franks.

In 1994, Frederick Banting was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

The Frederick Banting Interpretation Centre in Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador is a museum named after him which focuses on the circumstances surrounding the 1941 plane crash which claimed his life.

Frederick Banting's artwork has gained attention in the art community; A painting of his called "St Tite des Cap" sold for Can$30,000 including buyer's premium at a Canadian art auction in Toronto.

Frederick Banting is portrayed by Jason Priestley boarding his fatal flight in the 2006 historical drama Above and Beyond.

Frederick Banting was a member of numerous medical academies and societies in Canada and abroad, including the British and American Physiological Societies, and the American Pharmacological Society.

In 2004, Frederick Banting was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.