Jgg NONEXISTENCE OK SUGAR IN DIABETIC BLOOD. 



^ ed in the mixture of carbonic acid gas, which I cannot 

 explain* 



IV. 



O/i the Nonexistence of Svgar in the Blood of Persons /a* 

 bouring under Diabetes MelUtus. In a Letter to Alex- 

 ander Marcet, M. D., F. R. S.from William Hyde 

 WaLL ASTON, 31. D., Sec. K. S.* 



My dear Sir, 



of^sucrrtn*^^ JlN reply to your inquiry respecting my experiments upon 



diabetic blood, the nonexistence of sugar in the serum of diabetic persons, 

 which I have mentioned to you at different peiiods, I am 

 really ashamed to reflect how long I have suffered them to 

 remain neglected, when I consider their tendency to eluci* 

 date a curious point of physiological research. 



deiSFtl** ^'^y ^^^^ endeavours to detect sugar in the serum of the 



blood were made soon after perusing the second edition of 

 Dr. RoUo's Treatise on the diabetes (which was published 

 in 1798,) at the request of Dr. Baillie, who was so obliging 

 as to furnish me with various specimens of diabetic blood 

 and serum for this purpose, 



riai'ents *''^*' '^^'^ other set of experiments which I made with reference 

 to the same question were not thought of till the following 

 year. The inquiry was then left unfinished, and I never re- 

 sumed it ; for, as 1 soon afterf relinquished the practice of 

 physic, I desisted in a great measure from prosecuting any 

 inquiries connected with medicine. 



However, since so much of this subject as is strictly phy-» 

 siological, relating to the natural course of circulating 

 fluids, and more especially so much of the investigation as 

 is conducted by chemical means, is within the range of 

 those pursuits, which are generally interesting to the Royal 



• I^hil.TransiforliijI, p 96. t 1800. 



Society 



