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News, Notes and Queries ON THE TERM DIABETES IN THE WORKS OF ARETAEUS AND GALEN THE word diabetes comes from the Greek verb Sa,aivco (diabaino) which means I go or I run through; and StapATriS (diabetes) the thing the fluid runs through, that is a siphon or a water-pipe. The term diabetes seems to have been introduced into medical nomenclature by Aretaeus (Hirsch 1883, Reed 1954, etc.). Aretaeus' description of the disease runs, according to Francis Adams' translation of 1856 (pp. 338-9), as follows: Diabetes is a wonderful affection, not very frequent among men ... The course is the common one, namely, the kidneys and the bladder; for the patients never stop making water, but the flow is incessant, as iffrom the opening of aqueducts.* The nature of the disease, then, is chronic, and it takes a long period to form; but the patient is short-lived, if the constitution of the disease be completely established; for the melting is rapid, the death speedy. Moreover, life is disgusting and painful; thirst, unquenchabk; excessive drinking, which, however, is disproportionate to the large quantity of urine, for more urine is passed; and one cannot stop them eitherfrom drinking or making water. Or if for a time they abstain from drinking, their mouth becomes parched and their body dry; the viscera seem as if scorched up; they are affected with nausea, restlessness, and a burning thirst; and at no distant term they expire. Thirst, as if scorched up with fire ... But if it increase still more, the heat is small indeed, but pungent, and seated in the intestines; the abdomen shrivelled, veins protuberant, general emaciation, when the quantity of urine and the thirst have already increased; and when, at the same time, the sensation appears at the extremity of the member, the patients immediately make water. Hence, the disease appears to me to have got the name diabetes as if from the Greek word 6iapftrs (which signifies a siphon), because the fluid does not remain in the body, but uses the man's body as a ladder (Stap&dbpn), whereby to leave it." They stand out for a certain time, though not very long, for they pass urine with pain, and the emaciation is dreadful; nor does any great portion of the drink get into the system, and many parts of the flesh pass out along with the urine.

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Morgagni's Syndrome is a polyglandular endocrine syndrome, occurring almost exclusively in the female sex. It is characterized of the classical triad: internal frontal hyperostosis, obesity, virillism, and often accompanied by an old-age type of diabetes. In itself the hyperostosis is of little significance, but sometimes it is a valuable sign of a disorder of the carbohydrate metabolism. In many cases the syndrome is almost symptomless, in other cases senile neuro-psychiatric symptoms and ailments of old age dominate the clinical picture. The internal frontal hyperostosis has no closer relation to other more or less diffuse thickenings of the skull.