S4 E^tperimeiits on the Urme [Jan. 



of a kind which has not yet been explained by anatomical inves- 

 tigation. 



At the same time, it is probable that the assimiiatory organs 

 are also disordered; for the kidneys, though their function is 

 perverted,^ so as to render them instruments for forming sugar, 

 still retain, in part, their power of producing urea, when they 

 are furnished with fit materials. This may be deduced from the 

 known influence of animal diet, in diminishing the quantity of 

 urine in diabetes, and in restoring to it that peculiar substance 

 which characterizes healthy urine. lo the cases which have 

 fallen under my own treatment, as well as in those which have 

 been shown to me by my medical friends, these have been almost 

 invariable consequences, f But it has not always followed, with 

 equal certainty, as might have been expected from the testimony 

 of some writers, that the disease, in such instances, has been 

 cured. In the first case which I had an opportunity of treating, 

 the urine, in eight days, was reduced from 14 or 16 pints in the 

 24 hours to 6 pints, its specific gravity, at the close of that 

 interval, remained the same^ but the extract afforded an abun- 

 dant scaly precipitate with nitric acid. Notwithstanding this 

 change, the strength of the patient, already reduced to an ex- 

 treme degree by the duration of the disease, sunk so rapidly, that 

 I acquiesced in his wish to return home to a distant part of the 

 country, and to die in the midst of his ovv^n family. In this 

 case, (and similar ones^, I believe, are not uncommon) the 

 kidneys must have regained much of their healthy action, while 

 the general disease remained unsubsided. It should appear, 

 therefore, that neither derangement of the organs of assimilation, 

 nor morbid action of the kidneys, is of itself sufficient to account 

 for the diseas'e : and that both causes are probably conceroed in 

 its production J 



•» Dr. Rollo, ia liis valuable werk ob Diabetes (p. 418, 427) expresses an 

 opinion that the kidneys are merely separating hut not secreting oi'ga-m, adapted 

 to remove eYoremeiititious @r unassimilated ir.aiter froui the sysieiK. Tliey 

 appear to rae, however, to partake of the office of secretion equally with 

 every other gland ia the body; for tbere is as 'naark-ed dilFerence between 

 ui'ea aiid arsy of the 4)roxfmate principles of the blood, as between the latter 

 fluid and the bile, or any other secreted substance, 



f One exception only has occarred to mej which I have stated in Dr. Fer- 

 r jar's Med. Hist. i. 144« 



f Am opportunity has lately occwred to me of trying the plan of treatment 

 io diabete?, which has been recemmended, r*ith so btrong a body of evidence 

 in its favoiiF, by Dr, Watt, of Glasgow. The patient (a female aged 34) had 

 Saboisred r*nder the disease more than twelve months, and was then voiding 

 from 12 /Jo 18 pints of urine daily, which had the specific gravity I03T, and 

 gave no iraces @f urea, except by distiiiation. Though she was much ema- 

 ciated, y», her muscular strength did uotappear to me to be so far diminished, 

 as to forbia / e practice of bloodletting. Betvi^een the 28th December and the 

 14th January, she was bled four times, to-the extent of 12 or 14 ounces each 

 time. She was put, also, on a gentle course of mercnry, which after some time 

 difbtly affected theeaouth; and she was laid under uo particular reBtrktion as 



