--- description: Last week the great problem of taking insulin orally was reported about overcome. The problem has been to ingest this hormone. When swallowed stomach acids and enzymes destroy it, stomach fats... title: Medicine: Insulin Tablets image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Medicine: Insulin Tablets by [TIME](/author/time/) Nov 8, 1937 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Nov 8, 1937 5:00 AM CUT Last week the great problem of taking insulin orally was reported about overcome. The problem has been to ingest this hormone. When swallowed stomach acids and enzymes destroy it, stomach fats render any residues ineffective. Therefore victims of diabetes must inject insulin into their veins. Physiologist John Raymond Murlin of the University of Rochester announced that he and assistants have just perfected a compound of insulin and hexylresorcinol which may be swallowed as a tablet. It is effective because the hexylresorcinol neutralizes pepsin and acid, and emulsifies fat. Thus there remains nothing to impede insulin’s absorption by the diabetic’s sugar-laden body. Medicine: Insulin Tablets ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6768591/medicine-insulin-tablets/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6768591/medicine-insulin-tablets/"},"headline":"Medicine: Insulin Tablets","datePublished":"1937-11-08T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-28T19:35:10.563Z","description":"Last week the great problem of taking insulin orally was reported about overcome. The problem has been to ingest this hormone. When swallowed stomach acids and enzymes destroy it, stomach fats...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6768591/medicine-insulin-tablets/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6768591/medicine-insulin-tablets/","name":"Medicine: Insulin Tablets"}}]}] ```