Andrew Almon Fletcher (8 March 1889,

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

– 30 November 1964,

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

) was a Canadian physician and pioneering diabetologist, known as one of the five co-authors of the famous 1922 paper ''Pancreatic Extracts in the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus''.

Biography

A. Almon Fletcher graduated in 1913 from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

with an M.B. (qualifying him for the practice of medicine). From 1915 to 1918 he served overseas in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. After WW I, he became a staff member of the department of medicine of the University of Toronto and of the medical service of

Toronto General Hospital The Toronto General Hospital (TGH) is a major teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the flagship campus of University Health Network (UHN). It is located in the Discovery District of Downtown Toronto along University Avenue's Hospital ...

. He qualified F.R.C.P.C. in 1930. He was an assistant professor in the department of medicine of the University of Toronto and a senior physician at Toronto General Hospital from 1922 to 1951 when he retired from Toronto General Hospital. In 1951 he was put in charge of the clinical investigation unit at Toronto's Sunnybrook Military Hospital, which in 1973 became Sunnybrook Medical Centre. At Toronto General Hospital, in the diabetes ward under the direction of Duncan Archibald Graham, the physicians A. Almon Fletcher and Walter R. Campbell were responsible for the treatment of Leonard Thompson, a teenaged charity case with a severe case of

type 1 diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. Insulin is a hormone required for the cells to use blood sugar for ...

, who had been transferred on 2 December 1921 from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Campbell persuaded Leonard Thompson's father to consent to the experimental test on his son of the pancreatic extract supplied by

Banting Banting is a town and the seat of Kuala Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia. Banting has a population of 93,497. The postal code for Banting is 42700 and is administered by the Zone of 15 and 19 of the Kuala Langat Municipal Council. It is situa ...

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, and

Macleod MacLeod, McLeod and Macleod ( ) which cited: are surnames in the English language. Generally, the names are considered to be Anglicised forms of the Scottish Gaelic ', meaning "son of '". One of the earliest occurrences of the surname is of Gi ...

. The historic injection of insulin took place on 11 January 1922. According to Dr. Fletcher in 1962: In 1953 Fletcher and Campbell were both awarded Banting Medals by the

American Diabetes Association The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is a United States-based nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about diabetes and to help those affected by it through funding research to manage, cure and prevent diabetes (including type 1 diabetes, ...

. On 21 September 1921 in Toronto, A. Almon Fletcher married Helen Waterston Mowat (1895–1945). They had four daughters. His burial took place at

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a cemetery located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries. It was opened in November 1876 and is located north of Moore Park, a neighbourhood of Toronto. The cemetery has k ...

. He was a great-grandson of Sir Oliver Mowat.

Selected publications

Articles

* * 1922 (over 1250 citations) * * (This paper was delivered on 3 May 1922 by Macleod at the Washington, D.C., meeting of the

Association of American Physicians The Association of American Physicians (AAP) is an honorary medical society founded in 1885 by the Canadian physician Sir William Osler and six other distinguished physicians of his era for "the advancement of scientific and practical medicine." ...

. See ) * * * * * * * * 1956 * (reprint of March 1922 article)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Andrew Almon 1889 births 1964 deaths Canadian diabetologists People from Kingston, Ontario Physicians from Ontario University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto Burials at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto 20th-century Canadian physicians