SUGAR AND SYRUPS. 669 
Eichorst pronounces that the great secret of treating this diabetes 
successfully lies in the dietary, and chiefly as regards a plentiful 
supply of fats, whereof the physician should be able to suggest 
a large variety of forms in palatable dishes. The diabetic patient 
who passes 400 grains of Sugar in his urine daily will have to 
take 400 grains of albumin, or 180 grains of fat, to compensate 
for the loss. A New Zealand physician lately induced a patient 
suffering from advanced diabetes to nevertheless eat bread, 
and honey, (starch, and dextrose, in concentrated. forms) at his 
morning and evening meals, throughout a week, doing this just 
to prove how mistaken the old notions about Sugar in the diet 
have been. The said patient (now steadily recovering) did not 
find any alteration in his urine as to its specific gravity, quantity, 
amount of sugar, or other morbid characteristics, from taking 
the week’s bread, and honey. 
Saccharin (benzoic sulphamide), which is often prescribed as 
a substitute for sugar to sweeten foods, and drinks, is a product 
of coal-tar, and does not possess any nutritive properties whatever, 
but rather the reverse, as it tends to paralyse the digestive 
energies. So likewise do other coal-tar products taken for a 
like purpose, as dulcin, saxin, and sucramin, though they con- 
tribute to the taste all the sweetness of sugar. Furthermore, 
Saccharin, when thus used instead of Sugar, is found to reappear 
in the saliva, giving it a mawkish sweet savour, and impairing 
the appetite. Dulcin has been given to a dog at the rate of one 
gram (fifteen grains) a day, and the animal died after three weeks 
of this practice. 
It is the tendency of all the several Sugars to undergo 
fermentation in the stomach, according to three varieties : 
alcoholic (leading to the formation of acetic acid, or sour 
vinegar); butyric (with formation of butyric acid, such as 
follows often on taking hot melted butter); and lactic (the 
product being lactic acid, an element of rheumatic gout); m 
which latter case Grape Sugar (dextrose) should be avoided, 
whilst Cane Sugar, Maltose, and Sugar of Milk may be used in 
moderation. When butyric fermentation is disposed to occur, 
then Sugar of Milk is to be preferred for sweetening the food, and 
beverages ; likewise when there is a tendency to sour alcoholic 
fermentation, with vinegar produced in the stomach. If Sugar 
is taken with other foods by a person in fair health, and is 
distributed uniformly over the day, considerable quantities can 
