Discussion on the Morbid Conditions Which Cause Progressive Hyperglycæmic Glycosuria and the Circumstances Which Modify its Course

Abstract

removed the pancreas from von Mering's dog and found that it died after presenting the signs of diabetes mellitus, attention was centred upon that organ, the deterioration of which was considered to be the cause of all cases of hyperglyciemic glycosuria.Nevertheless more than a quarter of a century ago von Noorden and many others stated that the liver and the adrenal glands were involved in diabetes mellitus. Now we know that, in addition to these, the lobes of the pituitary gland, the thyroid gland, and the muscles, influence carbohydrate metabolism. Following the isolation of insulin by Banting and Best, there was once more a tendency to conclude that the pancreas wad the sole factor in diabetes mellitus, and this is well illustrated by the authors of several textbooks of medicine defining diabetes mellitus as an insufficiency of insulin or a condition which prevents it from acting.When it was found that some patients presenting the signs and symptoms of diabetes mellitus failed to respond to huge doses of insulin, doubt was thrown upon the belief that the pancreas was the sole factor and this doubt became more pronounced when Baker, Dickens, and Dodds (1924) demonstrated that the pancreas of a man who had died in diabetic coma contained quite a large amount of insulin.