DIABETES MELLITUS IN DOGS. 
635 
cells, or 2d. The pancreas has a direct function bearing upon 
the sugar-using characteristics of the animal cell, which func¬ 
tion when not exercised is evidenced by the symptoms we are 
pleased to group together as diabetes mellitus. 
Without entering at length the discussion of these theories, 
a summing up of all the evidence in sight from the standpoint 
of these investigations at least would greatly tend to prejudice us 
in favor of the former ; for just as the symptoms of myxodema 
and fatal cachexia may be averted in the human or animal 
body by the presence of an extremely small particle of healthy 
thyroid gland tissue, so may this condition of diabetes mellitus 
be also completely averted by the presence of a comparatively 
minute portion of the active pancreas standing in living connec¬ 
tion with the body, even though the location may vary very 
materially from the normal. 
Owing to the small number of cases I have been able to 
collect, and to the fact that they allowed no opportunity to 
investigate them experimentally, I cannot draw any particu¬ 
larly valuable deductions from them. They, however, serve to 
show that this disease is an important one to us. We are aware 
of the value of just such clinical cases, even in the hands of the 
men who study altogether experimentally, and if you take the 
trouble to read their works you will scarcely find mention made 
of these authentic cases. Let us bring them into line, and do 
some work on them ourselves, even for the sake of veterinary 
science, and in so doing aid ourselves and our profession in the 
routine work which pertains to correct scientific diagnosis. 
It matters not what the slip-shod graduate may sneeringly 
say regarding these seeming minor details in our study, we 
should take every means to inform ourselves of these methods 
and lose no good chance to apply them, for they are inadmis¬ 
sible to correctness, and the man who knows them and fails to 
apply them, to the end that he may reach the truth, is not only 
a laggard, but is positively dangerous to the profession. Figura¬ 
tively speaking, the presence of sugar, pus, blood or albumen in 
the urine of our patients hold the same relation to the veteri- 
