C 96 3 
V, On the Non-existence of Sugar in the Blood of Persons labouring 
under Diabetes Mellitus. In a Letter to Alexander Marcet, 
M o D, F. R. S. from William Hyde Wollaston, M. D. 
Sec . R. S, 
Read January 24, 1811. 
My dear Sir, 
In reply to your inquiry respecting my experiments upon 
the non-existence of sugar in the serum of diabetic persons, 
which I have mentioned to you at different periods, I am really 
ashamed to reflect how long I have suffered them to remain 
neglected, when I consider their tendency to elucidate a cu- 
rious point of physiological research. 
My first endeavours to detect sugar in the serum of the 
blood were made soon after perusing the second edition of 
Dr. Rollo’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. 
The 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 I soon after * 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 physio- 
* In 1800. 
