Diabetes
a constitutional disease produced by malassimilation in the stomach, liver, kidneys, or in the blood, specially marked by a very excessive discharge of urine, which is always saccharine, excessive thirst, and great bodily emaciation. Dr. Thomas Willis, in the time of Charles II., first observed the constant presence of sugar in the urine. The quantity of urine passed may vary from 10 to 30 or more pints in the day, with intense thirst, the patient often drinking many quarts, or even gallons, daily. The density of the urine is usually increased, and from 400 to 900 grains of sugar DIABLERETS will be passed in each pint of urine.
Though life may be prolonged, yet the disease is very intractable.
DIABLERETS (dyä-blē-rā'), a remarkable mountain of the Bernese Alps, Switzerland, on the frontiers of Bern and Valais, with a height of 10,651 feet above the sea. The Diablerets, with above the sea. their four main peaks, are composed of limestone strata, the lower beds of which are so soft and shaly that they are easily disintegrated, and masses from above tumble over into the valley, occasioning the most terrible catastrophes, as in 1714 and 1749.