Since the time that diabetes was first recognised as a disease, there had always been a pressing need to discover a cure. Many ideas and treatments had been put forward, with little or no success, especially for type 1 diabetes. Chemical methods in 1900 made diabetes easy to diagnose, and urine could now be tested to show the level of glucose present; however, glucose levels could not be controlled (Allen 1913). In the same year, William Bayliss and Ernest Starling detected chemical messengers within the bloodstream that controlled secretions from the endocrine glands (Rolleston 1936), and in 1902, suggested the term ‘hormone’ to describe any secretion from an endocrine gland.