New book

[Doghouse]

My brother has just given me a book on diabetes.
The Diabetic Life, by R D Lawrence MA MD FRCP.
First published in 1925. this copy is the fourteenth edition, 1950.
He was quick of the blocks, but I think its probably mostly out of date now. It will make an interesting read. I quick look through shows pictures of ye old syringe, and how to use it. However it does look very detailed, suggesting that even at that date, a lot was known about diabetes.
Mike

 

[Northerner]

He was the chap that started up Diabetes UK (formerly British Diabetic Association) with H G Wells. I find these old books fascinating, seeing what was know then and how treatments and thinking have changed 🙂

 

[Catwoman76]

My brother has just given me a book on diabetes.
The Diabetic Life, by R D Lawrence MA MD FRCP.
First published in 1925. this copy is the fourteenth edition, 1950.
He was quick of the blocks, but I think its probably mostly out of date now. It will make an interesting read. I quick look through shows pictures of ye old syringe, and how to use it. However it does look very detailed, suggesting that even at that date, a lot was known about diabetes.
Mike

Hi Mike that sounds really interesting, I love reading about things like that. I read a book a few years ago about childbirth, WOW I'm glad I didn't live back in those times. What those poor women went through was horrendous - that's if they survived Sheena

 

[HelenM]

RD Lawrence was a young doctor when he developed T1 diabetes This was before insulin was availalble in 1920. By 1923 he had retired to Italy, he had started to develop complications (neuropathy) and was preparing to die. In May of that year, one of his former colleagues at King's College hospital sent him a telegram
“I’ve got some insulin. It works. Come back quick.”
The insulin worked and Lawrence returned to work at King's becoming a world famous expert on diabetes and it's treatment.

For much of her career my mother nursed at Kings and was 'best friends' with the diabetes sister there who was a sort of surrogate aunt to me. I can remember hearing stories about him, a stickler for detail but a very kind and caring doctor.

 

[Bolddog]

.......................... this copy is the fourteenth edition, 1950...............

Remember it better than yesterday 😱


Bolddog


P.S. Like your name, Doghouse

 

[Blythespirit]

Now that's a book I'd like to get my hands on. I'm currently doing a bit of personal research on the early 20th Century treatment of diabetes. It does make you grateful for the advances we benefit from these days. XXXXX

 

[robert@fm]

I'm under that very team that Dr. Lawrence founded (though of course not any of the original members😉), and have read quite a bit about him from the wall plaques they have there. I understand that King's is still a centre of excellence for diabetes today.

 

[Eucalyptus44]

RD Lawrence

I've just read this post with great interest. RD Lawrence was my father-in-law and his biography "Diabetes, Insulin and the Life of RD Lawrence" has just been published by the Royal Society of Medicine and is due out on 31-07-2012

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diabetes-In...9697/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343556322&sr=8-1

It tells his life story and a team of specialists also summarise and assess his clinical and scientific achievements.

Please forgive this shameless promotion of my book which has been edited by Professor Robert Tattersall but all profits from the publication will go to Diabetes UK

Best wishes to all

A lot of new material on RDL can be accessed via the following link:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Who_we_are/History/RD-Lawrence/

 

[Northerner]

I've just read this post with great interest. RD Lawrence was my father-in-law and his biography "Diabetes, Insulin and the Life of RD Lawrence" has just been published by the Royal Society of Medicine and is due out on 31-07-2012

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diabetes-In...9697/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343556322&sr=8-1

It tells his life story and a team of specialists also summarise and assess his clinical and scientific achievements.

Please forgive this shameless promotion of my book which has been edited by Professor Robert Tattersall but all profits from the publication will go to Diabetes UK

Best wishes to all

A lot of new material on RDL can be accessed via the following link:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Who_we_are/History/RD-Lawrence/

I hope the book is a great success, it will be added to my list! 🙂

p.s. Any plans for a Kindle version?

 

[Eucalyptus44]

Many thanks for your comments!

No plans as yet for a Kindle version but it shouldn't be hard to arrange. On the Amazon page there's a button to press saying you'd like to read this book on Kindle and then a message is automatically sent to the publisher. It's worth pressing it so that the pressure for a kindle version mounts up.

 

[Northerner]

Many thanks for your comments!

No plans as yet for a Kindle version but it shouldn't be hard to arrange. On the Amazon page there's a button to press saying you'd like to read this book on Kindle and then a message is automatically sent to the publisher. It's worth pressing it so that the pressure for a kindle version mounts up.

I will certainly do that 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Oh - that's now on my reading list ! Thank you!

What people are apt to forget when reading about the first half of the 20th century is that there was no NHS until after WW2 so doctors visits had to be paid for as did the drugs. Read a comment somewhere recently about going to see The Man and saying of course it was private so you had to pay and my first thought was Gosh I didn't know that he practiced privately and was just a bit gobsmacked, you know, wanted to help all the other diabetics; not all of them would be able to afford that - ???? - then realised why he did that!

Even when the NHS started, services were limited. And if you went in hosp for anything in the 1950s, it was never just a few days - 10 days for a baby, fortnight for an appendix ..... ages for tonsils ...... was always secretly quite jealous of people who got a month off school for tonsils ! (didn't realise at all how scary and painful it could be!)

The year I was diagnosed or soon after, BDA were celebrating their 50th Anniversary and it scared me rigid when I read all about how far we had come since then. Such a very short time. I had to stop reading it - realising how bad it had been (cos they didn't disguise the horror stories at all and there were awful photographs of people) and how lucky I was to be born when I was. I couldn't explain to people how appalled I was and how it made me feel. Well that was then, this is now, you don't have to worry about all that because that won't happen to you .... nowt to do with logic, dread, is it?

However I came to terms with all that ! - and can now enjoy reading about it. I'm sure I will.

 

[Northerner]

TW, I'd urge you to read 'Taking the Medicine' - makes you realise that really, it's only since the late 1970s that doctors have really been able to give you stuff that would more likely help than harm!

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=16316

 

[HOBIE]

Good on you "Eucalyptus" 😉 Hope the book makes some money for Diabetes UK 😎