926 Diabetes Mellitus. 



pathogenic bacteria, although the saturation of the tissues with 

 sugar is here an important factor. 



Anatomical Changes. The autopsy findings differ from 

 case to case and may indeed be entirely negative except for 

 secondary changes. In the central nervous system hemorrhages, 

 new-formations, etc., are sometimes found in the medulla ob- 

 longata or in its immediate neighborhood. Fatty liver or an 

 increase in the connective tissue of the liver are frequent in 

 dogs, but less so in horses. In the pancreas there is at times 

 connective tissue proliferation, atrophy of the glandular tissue 

 or calculus formation. There are finally, as a rule, evidences 

 of anemia and serous infiltration. 



Symptoms. The clinical picture always develops insidi- 

 ously. At first the animals show a degree of dullness of the 

 sensorium, and fatigue; they perspire and easily tire whether 

 at work or at exerdse. Simultaneously a gradual emaciation 

 becomes manifest in spite of a good appetite, and often in 

 spite of the greedy eating of large amounts of food. 



The most characteristic changes are found in the urine. 

 The amount is, with few exceptions (diabetes decipiens), at 

 first more or less increased and may rise to 3 to 5 times the 

 normal daily output. It is discharged at brief intervals and 

 without effort, but later micturition may become painful, after 

 a catarrh of the external urinary passages or an eczema around 

 the urethral opening has developed. The urine is pale in color, 

 being almost like water if the polyuria is marked; of a peculiar 

 sweetish odor, or somewhat like the odor of fruit or chloroform ; 

 it is always acid in carnivora, occasionally so in herbivora, 

 and remains unchanged on standing for a relatively long time. 

 The specific gravity varies between 1,040 and 1,060, but is not 

 rarely much lower in cases in which only small amounts of 

 sugar are present iii the presence of polyuria. The greatest 

 importance must be attributed to the content in grape sugar 

 which, however, may vary within wide limits, not only in different 

 cases, but also in the same patient. In contrast to diabetes 

 in man, where the sugar content is usually slight in the initial 

 stage of the disease and only later increases gradually, in dia- 

 betic animals which usually come under the observation of the 

 veterinarian only in advanced stages of the disease, large 

 amounts of sugar are found as a rule (in horses 3.75-7.33% ; 

 in dogs 4-10%). The sugar content is also decidedly influenced 

 by the amount, and even more by the nature of the food. The 

 more sugar or amylaceous food is ingested the more sugar is 

 eliminated by the kidneys. On the other hand, especially in 

 the first stage, the sugar may disappear even entirely from the 

 urine after exclusive feeding with nitrogenous food-stuffs, 

 during the abstention from food, during the course of inter- 

 current febrile diseases, after strenuous exertion. Preller found 



