Total dietary regulation in the treatment of diabetes / by Frederick M. Allen, Edgar Stillman and Reginald Fitz.

  • Allen, Frederick M. (Frederick Madison), 1879-
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Total dietary regulation in the treatment of diabetes / by Frederick M. Allen, Edgar Stillman and Reginald Fitz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast ab Hohen- heim (1493-1541) broke radically away from all old dogmas, in this as in other subjects. He performed the first chemical experiment, and, with surprisingly accurate insight, drew from this crude observa- tion the first chemical concept of diabetes. The experiment con- sisted in evaporating the urine; it was found that a “‘measure’’ of urine yielded four ounces of “‘salt.”” Paracelsus therefore affirmed that diabetes is a systemic disease, characterized by the formation of an abnormal salt in the blood. The polyuria is not due to a renal lesion, but the salt ‘‘makes the kidneys thirsty; for thirst always comes from salt.” He was accustomed to taste the urine of patients, but for some reason failed to discover the sweetness of diabetic urine. Geronimo Cardano (1505-1576), an Italian, claimed that a girl of eighteen years took seven pounds of food and drink daily and excreted thirty-six pounds of urine, thus proving Celsus’ notion that the fluid output is greater than the intake in diabetes, the excess being suppos- edly drawn from the air. In addition to this mistake, there is evidence that the girl did not even have diabetes; but a step forward is repre- sented by this first record of a case history and a clinical experiment. Rembert Dodonaeus (1517-1586), a Dutch physician, first mentioned chyluria in a diabetic.® | Johann Baptista van Helmont (1578-1644), of Brabant, followed the chemical theory of Paracelsus and regarded diabetes as a disease of the blood. He was the first to record an observation of diabetic lipemia.” Franciscus Deleboe Sylvius (1614-1672), professor at Leyden, took a step backward, in holding that the offending substance in the blood in diabetes is a volatile salt. §“Albida autem urina erat, non transparens, et paulo quam serum lactis tenuior.”’ | , “Atque in diabete, totus cruor mutatur in lotium lacteum.”