He Conquered Death

Abstract

INFORMING children of famous discoveries in science presents many difficulties, and the method of tracing the biography of the discoverer is probably likely to be most successful. With a man of such varied interests and lovable qualities as the late Sir Frederick Banting, the task of the biographer is made easy. Yet Miss Shaw, who worked under Banting for eleven years at the University of Toronto, must be commended for the skill with which she has kept faith with Banting's tenacity for truth and for the way in which she stimulates the imaginative faculties of the young readers for whom her book is intended. This she achieves by allowing Banting's life-story to be told by a practising doctor, who was a con temporary of Banting in his undergraduate days, to a group of interested boys. As the story unfolds they learn of the discovery which made Banting world-famous, the methods and attitudes of research workers in general, Banting's marked abilities as a painter and his friendship with A. Y. Jackson, his experiences in two world wars in military medicine, and other events and incidents which made up a full and varied life. Miss Shaw has written a moving account of the great Canadian man of science which should be bought for every juvenile library where English is read. He Conquered Death The Story of Frederick Grant Banting. By Margaret Mason Shaw. Pp. xiii + 111 + 11 plates. (Toronto: The Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd., 1946.) 8s. 6d. net.