MEMOIR OF DR WRIGHT; .85 



chemists of the present day, in a manuscript memoir 

 of I)r Wright, which has never been published. " It 

 is remarkal)le," he says, " that the usual acids which 

 it appears to be the province of the kidneys to form, 

 either disappear altogether, or become exceedingly 

 scanty. These arc uric acid, sulphuric acid, and phos- 

 phoric acid. In place of these, a quantity of sugar is 

 found in the urine, and must be produced by the kid- 

 neys, the office of which appears, in this disease, to be 

 perverted. This disappearance of acids would lead to 

 the notion that, in all probability, acids might be use- 

 ful in this hopeless disease." 



The historv of the process of reasoning which leads 

 to important discoveries, is always an interesting sub- 

 ject of inquiry. But, in the present case, it is neces- 

 sary to dismiss the ingenious hypothesis which has just 

 been quoted, without suggesting a better : For, in 

 writing, many years afterwards, to his friend Dr 

 Gartshore, in answer probably to some inquiry on 

 the subject, Dr Wright observes, *' that he was 

 not led to the use of his specific in diabetes, by the 

 doctrines of the modern chemistry." 



About this period, also, Dr Wright found leisure 

 to write a number of those papers which were after- 

 wards given to the world, on his return to Great Bri- 

 tain. This can only be accounted for by the systema- 

 tic arrangement of his hours and duties ; by the adop- 

 tion of the golden rule, " A time for every thing, and 

 every thing in its time ; a place for every thing, and 

 every thing in its place ;" and by those strict habits of 

 temperance and moderation in all his appetites, for 



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