Diabetes, mellitus and insipidus / by Andrew H. Smith.

  • Smith Andrew H. (Andrew Heermance), 1837-1910.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diabetes, mellitus and insipidus / by Andrew H. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The habitual long-continued use of large quan- tities of sugar or starch, beyond what can be appro- priated by the system, seems sometimes to lay the foundation of permanent diabetes. At other times the glycosuria so induced is temporary, and ceases when the habit in question is relinquished. This suggests the question whether the presence of sugar in the blood may not be a sufficient source of irritation to the medulla to cause diabetes in what would otherwise be merely a case of temporary die- tetic glycosuria. This point has already been ad- verted to in another connection. Diabetes seems to occur with more than average frequency in those who drink habitually to intoxica- tion, just as temporary glycosuria is apt to follow a debauch. There may be an analogy between the effect of alcohol and that of ether or chloroform, anesthesia from these agents being generally followed by transient glycosuria. How far the mental and nervous excitement incidental to the action of all these agents may be a factor in the production of the glycosuria, is a question yet to be determined. But if it be true as is alleged, that in the case of alcohol enough must be taken to induce intoxication, it would seem a fair inference that the effect is produced through the nervous system rather than through the irritation of the liver by the alcohol in the portal blood. Of the other supposed cause.s, exposure to cold