1864.] Dr. Bence Jones on the production of Diabetes, 537 



December 15, 1864. 



J. P. GASSIOT, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



A letter addressed to the President by Dr. "WiUiam Farr, F.R.S., was read, 

 as follows : — 



General Register Office, Somerset House, 

 Dec. 2, 1864. 



My dear Sir, — The Registrar- General requests that you will do him 

 the favour to present the accompanying copy of the Enghsh liife Table to 

 the Royal Society. 



It contains some work by Scheutz's Machine, on which a Committee of 

 the Royal Society reported ; and the Table is the first national Table which 

 has been constructed, except one for Sv/eden. 



The method I employed I described in the paper which you did me 

 the honour to print in the Transactions. I have extended the method, and 

 have described its application to life and other risks. 



I am, &c., 



W. Farr. 



The President of the Royal Society. 



The following communications were read : — 



I. ^' On the production of Diabetes artificially in animals by the 

 external use ofCold.^' By Henry Bence Jones, M.D., F.R.S. 

 Received November 16, 1861. 



In 1789 Lavoisier wrote: — "La respiration n'est qu'une combustion 

 lente de carbone et d'hydrogene qui est semblable en tout acelle qui s'opere 

 dans une lampe ou dans une bougie allumee ; et sous ce point de vue les 

 animaux qui respirent sont des veritables corps combustibles qui brulent et 

 se consument." - ■ 



The different degrees of oxidation of different substances in the different 

 parts of the body at different times, forms still, and will long continue to 

 form, one of the largest and most important parts of the animal chemistry 

 of health and of disease. 



Notwithstanding all that Professor Liebig has done, the knowledge of 

 the phenomena of oxidation in the body is only at its commencement. 

 Take, for example, a grain of starch. It enters into the body, becomes 

 sugar, is acted on by oxygen, and ultimately passes out as carbonic acid 

 and water. This is the final result of the perfect combustion ; but what 

 are the different stages through which the starch passes 1 what happens if 

 the oxidation stops at any of these stages — that is, when imperfect com- 

 bustion occurs? 



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