Figure. “Indeed, by the majority of recent writers, it is usually stated that pancreatic extracts have no clinical value whatsoever. During the past ten months, two of us (F.G.B. and C.H.B.), working in the Department of Physiology of the University of Toronto, have reinvestigated the problem.” From Banting FG, Best CH, Collip JB, et al. Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Preliminary report. CMAJ 1922;12:141–6.
It doesn't pop up on a computer screen. It's in a bound volume on a shelf, where it has been for over 80 years. The tome falls open on its own at page 141, evidence of the many people before you who have sought this paper out and marvelled at its simplicity. It is a research paper, literally and figuratively, and it reports on the first clinical trials of insulin. It is a tangible, touchable link to researchers past, present and future.