Class I. 3. 2. 4. OF IRRITATION. 14! 



ifly feels a fulnefs about the prsecordia, with difficult refpira* 

 tion, and fymptoms iimilar to thofe of hyiteria. Perhaps a pre- 

 vious defect of abforption takes place in fome part of the body in 

 thofe hyfteric cafes, which are relieved by a copious difcharge of 

 pale urine. See Diabetes, explained at large, Section XXIX. 4. 



A difcharge of blood fometimes attends the diabetes, which 

 was occafionaliy a fymptom of that difeafe in Mr. Brindley, the 

 great navigable canal maker in this country. Which may be 

 accounted for by the communication of a lymphatic branch with 

 the gaftric branch of the vena portarum, as difcovered by J. F. 

 Meckel. See Sedion XXVII. 2. 



M. M. Alum. Earth of alum. Cantharides. Calomel. 

 Bark. Steel. Refin. Opium. See Secf. XXIX. 4. 



Since the publication of the firft edition of this work, I have 

 feen two patients affected with diabetes, who v/ere both of them 

 between fixty and feventy years old, and had formerly lived rath- 

 er freely, though very temperately latterly for many years. The 

 water they made had not been accurately meafured or evapora- 

 ted ; but one of them obferved that his terrier bitch lapoed his 

 urine in large quantities, and preferred it much to common water; 

 whence he concluded, it muft contain fome nutritious matter. 



They both complained of thirft, and had drunk two or three 

 times as much as ufual, during the time they had been affected 

 with the diabetes ; which was about four months in one, and 

 about three in the other. As I efteemed thefe cafes to be ow- 

 ing to the patients fwallowing more fluid than could be fo natti- 

 ly taken into the circulation, and that therefore a part of it was 

 conveyed to the bladder by the retrograde action of the lymphat- 

 ics, as in the beginning of intoxication ; I prevailed on them to 

 drink no more than their ufual quantity, or lefs ; and both thefe 

 mild cafes of diabetes ceafed immediately by this fimple treat- 

 ment of them. 



A fimilar event feems to have exifled in the two cafes of dia- 

 betes firlt published by Dr. Rollo ; on thofe days the patients 

 drank but little, the quantitv of urine was not more than natural. 

 Both from thefe cafes, and from others related by Dr. Rollo, it 

 appears, that when the patient lived on animal food, lefs faccha- 

 rine matter was detected in the urine, and aifo that the quanti- 

 tv of the urine abated ; the former of thefe circumftances is read- 

 ily accounted for, as vegetable materials are probably more co- 

 pi ouily convertible into fugar, either chemically or by the power 

 fef digeftion, than animal materials ; and the latter feems proba- 

 bly owing to the patients drinking lefs in quantity, when they 

 were retrained from beer and milk, and were allowed only broth 

 in their itead. 



In 



