two epileptic fits. These symptoms continued, increasing in severity, during a space of nearly five years; when, in consequence of reading the work of Cornaro on health, he first diminished the quantity of animal food, and finally discontinued the use both of it and ale,-living entirely on boiled pudding and sea-biscuit, which he partook of only twice in twenty-four hours. Under this regimen, Mr. Wood not only got rid of the rheumatic pains and gout, but became strong, vigorous, and agile. He was able to carry five hundred pounds weight; which was more than he could lift when he ate animal food and drank freely of ale. He enjoyed good health till his sixty-fourth year; when he died from inflammation, brought on by exposure to cold. Had his diet been regulated by more correct principles, and had other physiological laws been observed, it is probable he would have escaped the illness that caused his death, and have lived to extreme old age.

343. We are informed by Dr. Golding Bird, that a patient at Guy's Hospital recovered from a severe rheumatic attack by the same means. After a temporary recovery, by a judicious administration of medicine, "he went out of the hospital, took cold, checked the perspiration, and the uric acid deposit appeared as abundantly as before. He was again relieved by the diaphoretic treatment; but soon afterwards relapsed. It was therefore determined to confine his diet to arrow-root, sago, potatoes, and bread and butter;—excluding the four ounces of cooked meat he had previouly taken daily. The effect was very remarkable; the deposit almost immediately disappeared ;

and he remained free from it till the time when he was discharged. On one occasion, the urine of this man deposited, in twenty-four hours, upwards of thirty grains of uric acid."

344. In that usually fatal disease, diabetes mellitus, a diet consisting almost exclusively of animal food is considered, by most practitioners, absolutely necessary; and all vegetable productions containing starch or sugar, are most scrupulously forbidden. But if fruit and farinacea are the natural and best food of man, they must be equally proper (when judiciously selected) in health and in diseases of every description. Medicines which are unnatural to man in a state of health, are doubtless of great use in disease; but food is simply intended to supply nutriment to the system, and to support respiration; and these purposes will always be best effected by such a diet, as bears the closest relation to the structure of the digestive organs. The general use of animal food in diabetes must, therefore, be attributed to an imperfect knowledge of the cause and nature of the complaint. Mal-assimilation may be regarded as the common origin of struma, gout, and diabetes; and the urinary deposits which appear in each of these diseases, vary with the character of the ingesta;lithates abounding when an excess of azotized aliments are taken, and sugar when much non-azotized food is used. Dr. Prout observes, that "a saccharine condition of the urine exists in dyspeptic and gouty individuals, much oftener than is supposed: hundreds pass many years of their lives with this symptom more or less present, who are quite unaware of it, till the quantity of

urine becomes increased." * Gout and struma may arise in consequence of more food being taken than the assimilating organs (although in a comparatively healthy state) are able to vitalize; but the proximate cause of diabetes appears to be derangement of the digestive organs, and the symptoms vary with the progress of the disease. The first stage is attended with a sub-inflammatory condition of the stomach; which prevents the complete assimilation of the food, even when taken in moderate quantities. The saccharine state of the urine, which distinguishes the true diabetes mellitus, is sometimes preceded by an imperfect conversion of the oleaginous principles into fibrin; in consequence of which fat either accumulates in the system or is removed from it with the excretions: this may be considered the second stage of the disease, and may exist long before its real nature is suspected. As the functional or organic derangement increases, the third stage advances;-consisting in a want of power in the assimilating organs to change the saccharine principles of food into the oleaginous: consequently, the fat hitherto existing (probably in abundance) disappears, and the body becomes greatly emaciated; for the food, instead of contributing to the nourishment of the body, by its gradual conversion into fibrin, is expelled from the system in the form of a low sugar. If, at this stage of the complaint, the patient can be induced to dispense with all articles containing the amylaceous or saccharine principle, and confine himself to a simple animal diet, the symptoms will doubtless be alleviated,

* NATURE AND TREATMENT OF STOMACH AND RENAL DISEASES. P. 34.

and the amount of sugar in the urine will be less; simply because less saccharine matter has been taken into the stomach; or its presence may be disguised by the accumulation of urea and uric acid derived from the azotized food: but the diseased state of the functions and organs may still remain the same. Sugar continues to be excreted by the kidneys, even when an exclusive diet of animal food is adopted; which has induced some to believe, that the assimilating organs have not only lost their power of converting the saccharine group of aliments into fat and fibrin, but have also acquired the property of changing the azotized compounds into sugar. It is probable, however, that the fat previously deposited in the cellular tissue, is gradually absorbed and carried to the stomach; which, from its diseased condition, is unable to effect the necessary changes: the fat is therefore resolved. into sugar, and expelled from the system by the kidneys. As in dyspepsia (203 and 357), a well regulated diet of animal food, and a sparing supply of farinaceous matter, will be much more beneficial to the diabetic patient, than the indiscriminate use of all kinds of food of which he may be tempted to partake; but on a mild farinaceous diet, exclusive of all animal food, there would be a much better prospect of recovery, although the saccharine state of the urine might for a while be increased by it. The presence of sugar in the excretion is only a symptom, not a cause of the disease; and as an azotized diet may diminish the amount of sugar without curing the complaint, so a purely farinaceous diet may, by its mild and nutritious qualities, gradually restore both organ and

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function to health; though the symptoms should appear at first to be aggravated. A medical friend informed me, that he knew a diabetic patient who refused to live on animal food, and took nothing to eat but thickens; that is, oatmeal boiled with water or milk; yet he completely recovered his former health.