Diabetes

[di-ab-ef-tez) [dia(3r/T7jc; did, through; flaiveiv, to go]. A disease characterized by the habitual discharge of an exce ive quantity of urine; used without qualification, the word indicates diabetes mellitus. D., Biliary. See Biliary. D. decipiens, diabetes mellitus in which there is no polyuria or polydipsia. D., Gouty, a form of glycosuria occurring in gouty individuals. D. insipid us, a chronic disease characterized by the pa age of a large quantity of normal urine of low specific gravity, a ociated with intense thirst. The etiology of the disease is obscure — injuries and diseases of the brain, emotional disturbances, syphilis, acute infectious diseases, and heredity have been a igned as causes. The urine at times contains inosit, whence the term diabetes inositus in contradistinction to diabetes mellitus. D. mellitus, a nutritional disease characterized by the pa age of a large quantity of urine containing sugar; there is intense thirst, voracious appetite, progre ive lo of flesh and strength, and a tendency to a fatal termination. The causes are not well understood — diseases of the nervous system, especially of the medulla, intense mental strain, gout, syphilis, malaria, diseases of the pancreas, have been etiologic factors in some cases. Complications are frequent in diabetes, the most important being pulmonary tuberculosis, furunculosis, gangrene, cataract, polyneuritis. Death, if not caused by one of the complications, is generally due to the so-called diabetic coma. The ultimate cause of the presence of sugar in the urine is believed to be the incomplete destruction or utilization of the sugar formed in the system. D., Pancreatic, a variety of glycosuria a ociated with and probably dependent upon disease of the pancreas. D., Phloridzin-, that form produced in animals by the administration of phloridzin. D., Phosphatic, a condition characterized by polyuria, polydipsia, emaciation, and exce ive excretion of phosphates in the urine. 225