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ANNIE MACLEOD : 1939 ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT NOTEBOOK OF FIRST HAND OBSERVATIONS AND KNOWLEDGE ON DIET, NUTRITION, DIABETES, AND A HOST OF OTHER SUBJECTS DONE BY A YOUNG WOMAN LEARNING AND RESEARCHING AT THE BETH ISRAEL FOOD CLINIC

Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. On offer are the fascinating observations, clinical notes, historical information, and more kept by a woman by the name of Annie MacLeod in 1939. Ms. MacLeod was a graduate student doing a course at the Beth Israel Food Clinic in Boston, Massachusetts at the time. Her copious notes have been thoroughly researched and compiled, showing a tremendous amount of knowledge in what was still a burgeoning field of medical study (For reference, the first diabetes textbook in the English language came out in 1916.) The book contains an tremendous amount of information related to: how much and what kinds of food to consume for nutritional therapy (e.g. how much butter, sugar, meat, etc. to consume). In total, MacLeod’s notes cover a very wide range of topics: Clinics versus Hospitals; Nutritional Statistics; environmental factors; economics and their link to affordable food; pathological conditions; patient education; what constitutes a normal diet for an adult and child; notes on obesity; a tremendous amount on Diabetes Mellitus including the treatment of diabetes with diet and insulin; the period of action of regular insulin; treatment with exercise; dosages of regular insulin; dosage of protamine insulin; instructions for giving insulin sub-subcutaneously; treatment of adverse insulin reactions; prevention of coma; The ‘Benedict List’ for sugar; gastro-intestinal disturbances; ulcers; constipation; causes of constipation; Treatment of constipation; A pregnancy diet; a typical day’s menu for a patient at the Food Clinic; The cost of each diet recommended, and more. The professor or doctor who taught this student has added several penciled in corrections, questions, &c. to make it a reliable and therapeutic reference. The book also has several, charts, forms, dietary documents, diets, etc. in its pages, some handwritten and some pasted onto the page. There are also case studies done by MacLeod titled (Food and Health Record) that present a comprehensive record of how dietary abnormalities (diabetes, obesity, etc.) were treated in the late 1940s. One of these reports presents an 11 year old boy diagnosed with obesity. The chart has handwritten notes under ‘Nutritional History,’ ‘Present Food Intake,’ ‘Daily Routine and Hygiene,’ ‘Environmental Factors,’ ‘Personality,’ ‘Dietary Situation,’ and finally ends with a ‘Dietary Prescription of a “900 Calorie Diet with the elimination of sweets.” There are pages that follow where the patient comes back to the food clinic and MacLeod does more assessments of her. The last pages of the book contain an “Evaluation of the Course” by MacLeod where she writes, “I believe that my stay in the Food Clinic has been very profitable to me, not only from the standpoint of increased knowledge of diets but also from actual association with the patients...In the Food Clinic I have learned much more than I ever knew before about why the doctor orders a particular diet for a particular person...” The book itself is a spiral-bound notebook with flexible covers. It is in good to very good condition. The pages inside look fresh and are all still attached in the binder, with only one page loose. MacLeod’s handwritten entries are very readable, crisp and neat, in black ink that has faded very little if at all. The book measures approximately 8 x 11 inches and has roughly 100 pages of writing. Each page in the book is written in. This is a fantastic document for those interested in the history of diabetes and obesity research and how it was treated in the World War 2 period. It presents a very comprehensive set of knowledge that would be a great addition to a collection showing the evolution of nutritional science and diabetes research. (Background: Beth Israel Hospital in Boston addressed the needs of immigrants who spoke Yiddish without speaking English and for patients who kept a kosher diet. In 1928, Beth Israel established relationships with Tufts University and the Harvard Medical School and relocated to a new facility in the Longwood area of Boston. During the Depression, Beth Israel was one of only two hospitals in Boston that treated welfare recipients.). Manuscript. Book Condition: Good

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