Thanks for this very comprehensive article! I have learned a few things in there. I however have a few comments (I couldn't resist from making them).

Physicians confirmed a diagnosis by tasting the patient’s urine to find out if it contained sugar (today, there are better methods).

Mmmhhhhh… I want to tell them to enjoy their meal…. This should be a huge motivation to design a better method, to be honest.

In the early days of science, one of the most direct ways to find out an organ’s function was to remove it surgically and then observe the effects of its loss on the organism.

This sounds scaring… Early science was really tough on specimen, but we always do with the best of our time and of the knowledge of our time. This is also true today, isn’t it?

Some people feel that animal experiments are a bad idea, but the few dogs used in these early experiments enabled Banting’s team to change a progressive and fatal illness into a chronic, manageable condition.

This is an open question. I personally have not any strong opinion on that, except that this should always happen in a controlled way in which the animals don’t suffer (I however don’t know whether this is possible).