Milestones
Defining moments in history for Canadian Medical Services.
Discovery of Insulin
Major Sir Frederick Grant Banting, MC, was born on November 14, 1891, at Alliston, ON. Educated at the Public and High Schools at Alliston, he later went to the University of Toronto to study divinity, but soon transferred to the study of medicine. In 1916 he took his...
First Anti-Gravity Flying Suit
Professor Wilbur Franks developed the first G-suit used in combat Franks trained in cancer research under Fredrick Banting and took charge of wartime RCAF medical research after Banting's death. He invented the pressure suit, which allows pilots to carry out...
WW I Gas Mask Invented
Dr Cluny MacPherson, a Newfoundlander and Newfoundland Regiment Medical Officer, was the inventor of the gas mask which was the most important protective device of the First World War, protecting countless soldiers from blindness, disfigurement or injury to their throats and lungs. For his services, Dr MacPherson was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1918.