DIABETES INSIPIDUS 



863 



TABLE NO. 1 



as to whether the disorder should be considered a distinct disease entity. 

 Since the condition is believed to be associated chiefly with brain lesions, 

 one would expect to find it occurring frequently among the insane. This, 

 however, does not appear to be the case. A survey of the records of the 

 Kalamazoo State Hospital, Michigan, and a similar investigation of the 

 records of the Rochester State Hospital, New York, reveal no authentic 

 cases of diabetes insipidus. 



Etiology 



It has been noted by many workers that the syndrome occurs more 

 commonly in the earlier periods of life than later. Of the 85 cases col- 

 lected by Strauss, 9 were under five years of age, 12 were between 

 five and ten years, and 36 cases were between ten and twenty-five years 

 of age. Gerhardt(a) made a study of the cases in the literature in patients 

 under ten years of age. Of these, 30 occurred before the age of five, 

 and 30 between five and ten years. The condition has rarely been ob- 

 served in infancy. Rachel reported 4 cases of the ages of four, five, ten 

 and eleven months, said to have been afflicted with the syndrome. Several 

 other doubtful or borderline cases in children have been reported. 



Males are rnore commonly afflicted than females. This observation was 

 first made by Stoermer in a series of 133 cases he had seen and from re- 

 ports in the literature up to 1892. Moffet and Greenberger make the 

 same statement with reference to children and report that of 36 cases 



