Diabetes mellitus : an address / read before the Rhode Island Medical Society at their annual meeting, Providence, R.I., June 7, 1854 ; by S. Clapp.

  • Clapp, Sylvanus.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diabetes mellitus : an address / read before the Rhode Island Medical Society at their annual meeting, Providence, R.I., June 7, 1854 ; by S. Clapp. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    20 The second dog was kept two days without a particle of food, then suddenly put to death. The blood again from the cavities of the heart afforded serum containing sugar, while no traces of sugar could be found in the stomach, intestinal canal or urine. These two experiments we clearly see settle the fact, that the sugar was found in the blood, independent of the nature of the food the animal was fed on, or the changes produced by diges- tion. We at once perceive that his next experiment would be to determine the source whence this sugar would be derived. We will now follow him, step by step, and see how he arrives at this brilliant discovery. Again his experiments are performed on the canine race. A dog was killed seven hours after having heartily eaten of meat and bones. The abdomen was opened as speedily as possible. The digestive organs were found turgid with blood, and the lacteals filled with chyle. Blood was collected from the portal vein and from the cavities of the heart. Chyme was taken from the stomach and intestines, and chyle was collected from the thoracic duct. These were preserved separately, and care- fully tested for sugar. There was none found in the chyme or chyle, but a large quantity was yielded by the portal blood, and a less quantity from the cardiac cavities. In the second experiment, again the dog was kept for three days from all food, and the abdomen examined speedily after death. The digestive organs, instead of being turgid, were pale and anemic. The lacteals were full of chyle. The sugar was found, as before, in the cardiac cavities on the right side, and in the portal vein, although less abundant than in the pre- vious experiment; while none was found in the chyle. These experiments were repeated with like results many times. One step is now satisfactorily taken, but whence the sugar ? Here it is found, but whence its source ? From animals fed exclusively on an amylaceous diet, and