SPASMODIC AFFECTIONS. 491 



or less sweet ; and many experiments that have now been made 

 in different instances of the disease, show clearly that such urine 

 contains, in considerable quantity, a saccharine matter which ap- 

 pears to be very exactly of the nature of common sugar. 



MDVII. Dr. Willis seems to me to have been the first 

 who took notice of the sweetness of the urine in diabetes, and 

 almost every physician of England has since taken notice of the 

 same. It is to be doubted, indeed, if there is any case of idio- 

 pathic diabetes in which the urine is of a different kind. Though 

 neither the ancients, nor, in the other countries of Europe, the 

 moderns, till the latter were directed to it by the English, have 

 taken notice of the sweetness of the urine, it does not persuade 

 me, that either in ancient or in modern times the urine in dia- 

 betes was of another kind. I myself, indeed, think I have met 

 with one instance of diabetes in which the urine was perfectly 

 insipid, and it would seem that a like observation had occurred 

 to Dr. Martin Lister. I am persuaded, however, that such in- 

 stances are very rare ; and that the other is by much the more 

 common, and perhaps the almost universal occurrence. I judge, 

 therefore, that the presence of such a saccharine matter may be 

 considered as the principal circumstance in idiopathic diabetes ; 

 and it gives at least the only case of that disease that I can 

 properly treat of here, for I am only certain that what I am fur- 

 ther to mention relates to such a case. 



MDVIII. The antecedents of this disease, and consequently 

 the remote causes of it, have not been well ascertained. It 

 may be true, that it frequently happens to men who, for a long 

 time before, had been intemperate in drinking ; that it happens 

 to persons of a broken constitution, or who, as we often express 

 it, are in a cachectic state ; that it sometimes follows intermit- 

 tent fevers ; and that it has often occurred from excess in the 

 drinking of mineral waters. But none of these causes apply very 

 generally to the cases that occur : such causes are not always,, 

 nor even frequently, followed by a diabetes; and there are 

 many instances of diabetes which could not be referred to any 

 of them. In most of the cases of this disease which I have met 

 with, I could not refer it to any particular cause. 



MDIX. This disease commonly comes on slowly, and almost 

 imperceptibly, without any previous disorder. It often arises 



