Insulin Substitutes

From Berlin last week came another* report of an alternative to insulin in the treatment of diabetes. Many diabetics cannot endure the injection of insulin into them. They sicken.

To German surgeons who were in congress at Berlin last week, Dr. Carl H. von Noorden sent his report from his clinic at Frankfurt-am-Main. He wrote that he had succeeded in making an extract of animal pancreases. This extract he had reduced to powder then compressed into tablets. Patients whom insulin sickened could swallow his tablets. He called this extract "horment."

* A fortnight ago Dr. Frederick M. Allen of Morristown, N. J., told the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology of "myrtillin," vegetable extract which Dr. Richard I. Wagner, also of Morristown, had isolated after mulling over many a hundredweight of Maine huckleberry leaves (TIME, April 25). At the meeting of the American Association of Physicians in Atlantic City, May 3, and at 'the convention of the American Medical Association in Washington, May 20, Dr. Allen expects to give more ample reports on "myrtillin."