250 RETROGRADE SECT. XXIX. 4. 9 . 



lifted. Another indication of cure, requires fuch medicines, as by 

 lining the inteftines with mucilaginous fubftances or with fuch as 

 coniift of ihiooth particles, or which chemically deftroy the acri- 

 mony of their contents, may prevent the too great action of the 

 inteilinal abforbents. For this purpofe I have found the earth 

 precipitated from a folutioi>of alum, by means of fixed alkali, giv- 

 en in the dofe of half a dram every fix hours, of great advantage, 

 with a few grains of rhubarb, fo as to produce a daily evacuation. 



The food mould confiil of materials that have the lead ftim- 

 ulus, with calcareous water, as of Briftol and Matlock ; that the 

 mouths of the lacleals may be as little ftimulated as is neceflary 

 for their proper abforption ; left with their greater exertions, 

 ihould be connected by fympathy, the inverted motions of the 

 urinary lymphatics. 



The fame method may be employed with equal advantage in 

 the aqueous diabetes, fo great is the fympathy between the (kin 

 and the (tomach. To which, however, fome application to the 

 ikin might be ufefully added ; as rubbing the patient all over 

 with oil, to prevent the too great action of the cutaneous abforb- 

 ents. I knew an experiment of this kind made upon one pa- 

 tient with apparent advantage. 



The mucilaginous diabetes will require the fame treatment, 

 which is moil efficacious in the dropfy, and will be defcribed be- 

 low. I mult add, that the diet and medicines above mentioned, 

 are ilrongly recommended by various authors, as by Morgan, 

 Willis, Harris, and Etmuller , but more hiftories of the fuccefs- 

 ful treatment of thefe difeafes are wanting to fully afcertain the 

 mod efficacious methods of cure. 



In a letter from Mr. Charles Darwin, dated April 24, 1778, 

 Edinburgh, is the fubfequent paffage : " A man who had long 

 laboured under a diabetes, died yefterday in the clinical ward. 

 He had for fome time drunk four, and pafled twelve pounds of 

 fluid daily j each pound of urine contained an ounce of fugar. 

 He took, without confiderable relief, gum kino, fanguis draconis 

 melted wi f h alum, tincture of cantharides, ifinglafs, gum arabic, 

 crab's eyes, fpirit of hartflhorn, and eat ten or fifteen oyfters 

 thrice a day. Dr. Home, having read my thefis, bled him, and 

 found that neither the frefh blood nor the ferum tailed fweet. 

 His body was opened this morning every vifcus appeared in a 

 found and natural (late, except that the left kidney had a very 

 fmall pelvis, and that there was a confiderable enlargement of 

 mod of the mefenteric lymphatic glands. I intend to infert this 

 in my thefis, as it coincides with the experiment, where fome 

 afparagus was eaten at the beginning of intoxication, and its 

 fmell perceived in the urine, though not in the blood." 



The 



