608 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
or some other part of the encephalo-rachidian apparatus, and 
more so since M. Claude Bernard has seen this modification 
in the secretion of urine follow after a small puncture of the 
fourth ventricle of the brain. It was in 1857 that this learned 
physiologist made the following observation. If you puncture, 
he says, the fourth ventricle, at the origin of the pneumogastrie 
nerve, the secretion of sugar (in the liver) increases very 
much ; the blood also contains a greater proportion, and the 
urine is charged with it; at the same time the abdominal 
circulation is increased. If you puncture the spinal marrow 
a little below the phrenic nerve, the contrary phenomenon is 
observed. The urine contains no sugar, and even more, it is 
not found in the liver three hours after the puncture has 
been made. In 1858 M. Leudet presented to the Biological 
Society—the same to which M. Claude Bernard had com¬ 
municated his discovery—an interesting memoir, which con¬ 
tains a great number of clinical facts that demonstrate the 
influence of cerebral maladies in the production of saccharine 
diabetes, and where afterwards are recorded those analogous 
facts observed by Dr. Golding* Bird, Physician to Guy’s Hospital 
in London. He also mentions in this memoir the labours 
of M. Blot on the temporary glucosuria of wet-nurses, 
likewise those recorded by Dr. Bence Jones on the frequency 
of this disease, though slight, in old age; and others more or 
less based on the same theoretic views, according to which 
convulsions, and especially epilepsy, may occasion a tempo¬ 
rary attack of diabetes. These facts have been contested, 
although some of the clinical observations of M. Leudet 
tend to prove their accuracy. The conclusions that M. Leudet 
draws from his memoir are—1st. The cause of diabetes, in 
certain cases, is from some organic alteration in the brain. 
2nd. The debut of glucosuria may coincide with the malady 
of the brain, or be consequent on it. 3rd. Convulsive cere¬ 
bral affections seem to be particularly accompanied by glu¬ 
cosuria. 4th. Diabetes may only be temporary, and manifest 
itself with the cerebral affection and disappear with it. 
Other observations have been published relative to 
glucosuria depending on organic lesions or functional 
derangements of the cerebro-spinal organs ; and amongst these 
the memoir of Professor Schifl) of Berne, which was approved 
of by the Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen, in 1859, seems 
to be most worthy of attention. By means of many experi¬ 
ments,this physiologist confirms the theory of Claude Bernard 
as to the existence of the amyloid granulation in the hepatic 
cells, and their transformation into sugar under the influence 
of a certain ferment existing in the blood; and he demonstrates 
