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Two Discoveries, Not One Gland, Define Endocrinology

09/21/2026 12:00:00 AM

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Endocrinology is usually introduced through its subject matter: the glands that secrete hormones, and the diseases that follow when hormonal regulation goes wrong. The field's own recorded history points instead to two specific moments that did more to define the specialty than an inventory of glands could. The first is the isolation of insulin in 1921 and 1922, credited to Frederick Banting and Charles Best and recorded by the Endocrine Society as the field's most famous single achievement. Before that discovery, diabetes was a diagnosis with no treatment. After it, insulin therapy became one of the first hormone treatments in clinical medicine, giving the specialty its founding proof that a hormone, correctly identified and administered, could change the course of a disease. The second moment belongs to Hans Selye, an endocrinologist who defined the physiological concept of stress. Selye's work carried endocrinology outside the glands entirely, into a general account of how the body responds to strain of any kind, a concept now used well beyond medicine. One discovery about a single hormone, and one about a general bodily response: together they shaped what endocrinology means more than the anatomy of the glands it studies.

Where To Read More

  • Isolation of InsulinMolecular, Genetic and Metabolic DiscoveryThe insulin discovery the essay opens with.
  • InsulinAlimentary Tract and Metabolism AgentsInsulin, the hormone whose 1921-1922 isolation is the essay first discovery
  • Insulin TherapyPharmacological TherapyInsulin therapy, the clinical result of the 1921-1922 discovery.
  • Frederick BantingMedical Scientists, Physiologists and PharmacologistsFrederick Banting, credited with the isolation of insulin
  • Charles BestMedical Scientists, Physiologists and PharmacologistsCharles Best, credited with the isolation of insulin
  • Hans SelyeMedical Scientists, Physiologists and PharmacologistsHans Selye, whose definition of stress is the essay second discovery
  • EndocrinologyInternal Medicine SubspecialtiesEndocrinology, the field this essay reframes through two discoveries