In September, 1922, there was still more demand for insulin than there was supply. The ten clinicians who were given weekly distributions could have easily used more.
Meanwhile, Banting was faced with an onslaught of letters from people with diabetes, desperate for access to insulin. Dr. Frederick Madison Allen - a leading endocrinologist whose "Starvation Diet" kept patients alive beyond their intial prognoses - wrote a letter to his patients, trying to ease the burden on Dr. Banting and to assure his patients that an effort to increase access was being made. Dr. Allen wrote:
"Every effort is being made by the discoverers and manufacturers to improve the process and increase the output. Dr. Banting in Toronto is overwhelmed with requests from patients whom he cannot treat or furnish with extract. He is devoting himself to experimental trials upon a few desperately severe cases and has generously shared the small supply with a few specialists. . .The small present supply of [the Physiatric Institute] is being used for treatment of a few cases of the greatest severity."
Of course, Allen's words would not quell the growing interest in insulin. How could anyone's words quiet the demand for a drug that could save the life of one's child? Especially when there was nothing else that could?
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