164 ACIDOSIS, ACETONEMIA, 



Stimulation of the central end of the divided vagus 

 acts in the same way. To this class belong those 

 clinical cases in which transient glycosuria follows 

 head injury or cerebral compression. 



(b). By very excessive feeding on sugars. — Doses of 

 over 150 grams of glucose or cane sugar will set up 

 a sort of overflow glycosuria ; smaller quantities of 

 lactose or maltose (from beer) will do the same. 



(c). By administration of phloridzin, which is a 

 glucoside occurring in the bark of plum and cherry 

 trees. This drug has the remarkable power of com- 

 peUing the secretory epithelium of the kidney to 

 break down serum-albumin so as to yield sugar ; 

 the glycosuria is not therefore associated with any 

 increase of sugar in the blood. 



It is of course conceivable that human diabetes, 

 in some cases at least, might be of renal origin in a 

 similar manner, and an attempt has actually been 

 made in France to separate off a class of renal dia- 

 betics, but very few English, German, or American 

 authorities allow the justifiability of this. Phloridzin 

 glycosuria would be devoid of practical interest if it 

 were not that it has recently been taken up by the 

 surgeon for diagnostic purposes. When a patient 

 has severe tuberculosis of, shall we say, the right 

 kidney, but the condition of the left is doubtful, it 

 would of course be a serious risk to remove the right 

 kidney, and indeed a fatal result has several times 

 been recorded. Of the methods of investigating 

 the function of the left kidney, one of the best is to 

 give phloridzin. If sugar fails to appear in the urine, 

 both kidneys are seriously diseased ; if it does 



