178 DR. CHASE'S RECIPES. 



of certain alkaline salts. These salts are absolutely necessary in order that tht 

 sugar which is formed in this disease, just as in health, should be burnt off at 

 the lungs. M. Mialhe, who discovered the above fact, considers this deficiencj 

 the primary (first) cause of diabetes. Whether this is so or not, there is no 

 doubt that snch deficiency must re-act upon the disease. Accordingly, treat- 

 ment directed to supply this deficiency is likely to prove of service, and in 

 actual practice such is found to be the fact. The best saline mixture is com- 

 posed of carbonate of ammonia, phosphate of ammonia, and carbonate of soda, 

 each, 10 grs. ; tinct. of ginger, a few drops; 3 times a day in an oz. (3 or 3 table- 

 spoonfuls) of water. 



This mixture is very gratifying to the patient, relieves thirst, and mitigates 

 (lessens or relieves) the morbid (unhealthy or craving) appetite. The tongue 

 generally becomes moist, the urine diminishes in quantity, and contains less 

 sugar. In one case, which may be taken as an average one, the amount of 

 sugar was reduced from 30 grs. to the oz. of urine, to 6 grs. , and the amount 

 of urine daily from 14 pts. to 4 pts, — Dr. W. R. Basham. 



Remarks. — I have taken this from the Eclectic Medical Journal of 1872, 

 page 327, and therefore, I have confidence in it, although I have had no oppor- 

 tunity to try it, as I did not see it until the writing of this department was nearly 

 completed, and especially not till the subject of diabetes had been written; still 

 I shall try it at once if a case comes under my care. 



3. Ergot in Diabetes Insipidus.— Dr. Saunders — St. Louis C<mriei 

 of Medicine — reports a case of diabetes insipidus successfully treated, with dram 

 (small tea-spoon) doses three times a day of fl. ex. of ergot. The use of ergot 

 was suggested by an article from Dr. Do Costa. 



Remarks. — These French physicians, are generally pretty certain of their 

 facts, before they report their cases. 



4. Diabetes— Incontinence and Dribbling of Urine, Success- 

 ful Remedy for. — After the foregoing matter upon diabetes had all been pre- 

 pared, I saw a report of the very remarkable success of J. T. McClanahan, M.D., 

 of Brownville, Mo., in the " Newer Materia Medica" of Pajke, Davis & Co., 

 Detroit, Mich., especially upon diabetes, and incidentally upon the others above 

 named, having been successful in both kinds of diabetes — mellitus, from mel, 

 honey or sweet, — the kind that has sugar in the urine; and also in what is called 

 insipidus, i. e., no sugar in the urine, and hence insipid or tasteless. This latter 

 kind, however, has been, heretofore, much more readily cured than that with 

 the sugar in the urine, but Dr. McClanahan, even in a case of this almost incur- 

 able kind — diabetes mellitus — reports the following successfxil cure. He says: 



1. " My case was that of a woman aged 37, mother of children, who was 

 completely run down by large discharges of urine, general lassitude or weakness, 

 (so that she had to give up housework,) pain in the back, considerable thirst, ap- 

 petite variable, sometimes ravenous, and sometimes deficient, skin sallow and 

 doughy, temperature 1013^, slight cough, and occasional night sweats, loss ol 

 flesh, pulse little affected except when diarrhea was present for a few days, it 

 would then present the usual feebleness and rapidity. I found the urine con- 

 rained sugar; specific gravity, 1.032. I gave the saturated tinct. of rhua 



