Dr. William Sansum, founder of Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in 1944, first came to Santa Barbara in 1920 from Wisconsin, via Rush Medical College at the University of Chicago. Dr. Hildahl Burtness, came to Santa Barbara in 1929 from Minnesota, also via Rush Medical College. Dr. Sansum's reason for coming to Santa Barbara was a 1920 letter from George Owen Knapp, then a member of the Board of the Cottage Hospital, inviting him to become the director of the Potter Metabolic Clinic. Dr. Nathaniel Potter in the early 1900's was one of the foremost diagnosticians of metabolic medicine in the world. Graduating in 1894 from Harvard Medical School, he pursued research in New York on three metabolic diseases: diabetes, gout, and nephritis. Dr. Potter's definition of metabolism was memorized by medical students of the era, and is as follows:
Dr. William D. Sansum
at the time he established the
Sansum Clinic at
Cottage Hospital in 1928.
“The body in reality is a great complex chemical laboratory in which nature is constantly destroying old and building up new tissues, from the moment of birth to the instant of death. These changes are essentially chemical, and can be more or less perfectly studied and measured.
"Disease, from whatever cause, alters the chemistry of the body. Many diseases are essentially chemical in both cause and result. It is impossible to correctly interpret any disease without studying the chemistry of the body. Some of the most important diseases affecting man are purely chemical in nature; no other line of investigation affords information as to their nature. The general phenomena of building up the body and disposing of the worn-out materials is known as METABOLISM."
In about 1910 Dr. Potter was himself diagnosed with diabetes. In 1915 his youngest daughter died of leukemia and he set up a memorial laboratory at New York City Hospital to study the three metabolic diseases mentioned previously -- diabetes, gout and nephritis. His own health declined precipitously, and by 1917 his diabetes was at the incurable stage and he also had nephritis, heart disease and tuberculosis. He decided to move to Santa Barbara, both for his own health and because it already had a reputation as a
health center. The Carnegie Corporation and others agreed to transfer their funding of his clinic to the new location.
The Cottage Hospital had opened in 1891, in large part due to the philanthropy of wealthy Montecito residents, including the previously-mentioned George Knapp, president of Union Carbide. Wealthy people, as well as a great many others, found Santa Barbara to be a wonderful place not only for restoration of the body, but a very nice place to live.
Into this rather favorable medical and geographical environment in 1917 came Dr. Potter, and an arrangement was set up for him to be part of the Cottage Hospital. His health, however, degenerated rapidly, and within a year he was making his rounds in a wheelchair. His fortitude and the need for expanded facilities made a strong impression on three wealthy Montecitans -- George Knapp (again), a man named Billings (who was a director of Union Carbide), and Frederick Forest Peabody of Arrow shirt fame. They funded the "Potter Metabolic Wing" at the Cottage Hospital, with ground-breaking in 1919, and which contained both clinical and research facilities. Dr. Potter was too weak to attend the ceremonies. About half-way through the construction of the building, Dr. Potter thought that a vacation at Lake Tahoe would be of help to his waning strength. He left Santa Barbara on a stretcher by train in June 1919, but upon arriving in San Francisco was transferred to a hospital, where he died a month later, in diabetic coma.
The search for a director to replace Dr. Potter led the Cottage Hospital's board of trustees to seek out Dr. Sansum, whose research and publications in the field of diabetes were already well-known. Dr. Sansum accepted, arriving by train in November of 1920.
In his first presentation to the Potter Clinic staff, Dr. Sansum reiterated the objectives as originally stated by Dr. Potter for the new clinic, and which would be his guidelines (taken from Walker Tompkins' book, Continuing Quest):
"First, the study of an unsolved group of more or less closely allied diseases of metabolism -- diabetes, nephritis, high blood pressure, thyroidism, gout, obesity, and various nutritional disorders. This study was intended to be a concentrated effort to ascertain the fundamental causes of such diseases, better methods of treatment and, eventually, complete cures."
Second, to furnish a place where patients suffering from these diseases might receive careful, adequate examinations and the best treatment known to medical science, regardless of their finances.
Third, to afford a center for the specialized training of physicians, nurses, dieticians, and laboratory workers interested in this field.
It was during this early period that Dr. Sansum earned the nickname "Father Sansum". He started taking diabetic children to matinee vaudeville performances on Saturdays and the cashier would say to the doorman "Here comes Father Sansum with all his children." His patients used the name, and so did many of his colleagues, and there exist letters which he signed the same way, so he apparently enjoyed the title.
Dr. Sansum pursued his diabetes work in the early 1920's, and at the same time Dr. Frederick Banting in Canada was doing the same, specifically, trying to develop a compound which would duplicate the pancreatic secretions missing or deficient in the metabolism of the diabetic. Banting teamed up with a fellow Canadian, Charles Best. To greatly summarize, they successfully treated animals and ultimately humans with the extract they developed. It led to a Nobel prize for Dr. Banting. They named their extract "insulin", from the Latin for "island", referring to the Islets of Langerhans.
The news of this development, of course, went around the world, including to Santa Barbara, where Dr. Sansum decided to pursue the same direction in his research -- the production of insulin from animal pancreases. At this point, only minuscule amounts of insulin were available, and researchers everywhere were trying to develop better methods and also increase purity and strength, for use in humans. Two years of research by Dr. Sansum and his staff, with the accompanying successes and failures, led on May 31, 1922, to injection of the first patient with U.S.-made insulin at the Potter Clinic. A terminally ill 51-year old man was the patient, and he lived to the age of 90, dying of old age and outliving Dr. Sansum by 10 years.
It took another three years to bring the supply of insulin into line with the need, another year to complete studies already in process, and then put into practice the carbohydrate-based diet for diabetics. In fact, some writers have said that this dietary aspect of treatment may be a more lasting memorial to Dr. Sansum's work than his insulin research, but the use of insulin has taken the primary spotlight. Insulin production by Sansum and his staff eventually ended because of the perfection and introduction of Iletin (a Lilly product), but research continued at the Potter Clinic in the areas of measuring insulin potency and diet.
In 1926 the Potter Metabolic Clinic was merged with the rest of the Cottage Hospital's research activities, with work divided into three areas: cancer, cardiology and metabolic research, the latter headed by Dr. Sansum. He continued work in the areas of diet and education, major components of diabetes care today, published books and articles and gave lectures on these subjects.
In 1928, the philanthropic mainstay of Dr. Sansum's research, the Carnegie Corporation, decided to end the 13-year affiliation with metabolic research. This was accompanied by some changes in support at the hospital and the related departure of some of his staff. Late that year, Dr. Sansum decided to form his own clinic group, which by mid-1929 had a staff of five physicians, including Dr. H. Burtness. Again, George Knapp entered the scene. He owned most of the land across Pueblo Street from the hospital, and encouraged Dr. Sansum to build a clinic there, which he did, opening in June of 1931 with, by then, a staff of eleven physicians. Things were going well, and research continued through the 1930's in diet, education and home-management of diabetes. Some of the problems brought about by the Depression of this decade, had important impacts on the new clinic and its staff but, in short, they weathered the period reasonably successfully.
Dr. Sansum in his laboratory.
The years of work, however, had taken their toll on Dr. Sansum, and in 1938 he was advised by his own staff to slow down -- that high blood pressure and the beginnings of arteriosclerosis were showing up in tests. He ignored the advice. With the advent of World War II many staff members joined the armed service, and Dr. Sansum had to work even harder, leading in 1942 to a second, more serious warning of the possibility of a heart attack. This time he listened, and retired from active practice, but did continue his research efforts, including work on an orally-administered form of insulin.
The Original Sansum Clinic in 1932 located at 317 West Pueblo Street, boasted 60 spacious rooms. The site is now a parking lot for the new Sansum Clinic flanking Castillo Street, which was dedicated in 1977.
In 1944 Dr. Sansum's brother died of a heart attack as had both parents. It brought Dr. Sansum to a realization of his own mortality and he pondered what he could do to see that research in diabetes and diabetes-related diseases could continue after his death. Out of these thoughts, in 1944, was born the Sansum Clinic Foundation, later the Sansum Medical Research Foundation and now the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute. Early research was undertaken at the Cottage Hospital laboratories, because the Sansum Clinic did not have its own.
In 1947, with the infusion of a significant donation by Max Fleischmann of Santa Barbara, Dr. Sansum began work on a special laboratory to study the possibility of pancreatic cell transplantation, among other things. But in January of 1948, while working in his research laboratory at the Cottage Hospital, he suffered a stroke and died two hours later.
The clinic was reorganized, being purchased by a partnership of six of the doctors on the staff. The research foundation, headed by Dr. Alfred Koehler, continued to work on the projects with which Dr. Sansum had been involved. Unfortunately, the Fleischmann grant for pancreas cell studies had stipulated that the work be done by Dr. Sansum himself and was canceled. Dr. Koehler was the primary researcher during the next five years, but in 1953 he also suffered a stroke and a two-year period of research dormancy followed.
In 1955, Dr. Hildahl Burtness took over as president of the Foundation and Dr. Casimir Domz arrived and took over on a part-time basis as director of laboratories, a post he held for 17 years. The infusion of funds from a trust set up by an early patient of Dr. Sansum at the old Potter Metabolic Clinic helped further research in diabetes. With funds from the American Cancer Society and others, work began on detection techniques for cancer, as well as other cancer-related projects.
The Foundation still did not have a place of its own for research. A patient of Dr. Burtness since 1932, Harry Morrison shared the enthusiasm of the staff of the foundation in having their own quarters. Mr. Morrison was the president of Morrison-Knudson Co., one the world's largest
Dr. Sansum in his laboratory.
construction companies. In 1966 the first floor and basement of our building were built with a $100,000 key gift from the Morrisons as well as other donations from many other people. Full-scale diabetes research began soon thereafter in the Morrison Laboratories under Dr. Donald McMillan. A great deal has happened in the intervening years, with the usual successes and failures, lean times and better times, but always with the goal of perhaps curing, but at least alleviating, the suffering caused by these metabolic diseases, as well as excursions in other directions. The history of those years is written in scientific journals and books, and in the careers of the researchers who have been at the Institute over the years to present.
Mr. Harry W. Morrison, benefactor of the Morrison Laboratories, was a devoted friend and patient of Dr. Hildahl Burtness.
Mrs. Velma Morrison, wife of Harry Morrison,is actively interested in supporting ongoing research at the Institute.
