Book 2
2
DIABETES is a wonderful affection, not very frequent among men, being a melting down of the flesh and limbs into urine. Its cause is of a cold and humid nature, as in dropsy. The course is the common one, namely, the kidneys and bladder; for the patients never stop making water, but the flow is incessant, as if from the opening of aqueducts. The nature of the disease, then, is chronic, and it takes a long period to form; but the patient is short-lived, if the constitution of the disease be completely established; for the melting is rapid, the death speedy. Moreover, life is disgusting and painful; thirst, unquenchable; excessive drinking, which, however, is disproportionate to the large quantity of urine, for more urine is passed; and one cannot stop them either from drinking or making water. Or if for a time they abstain from drinking, their mouth becomes parched and their body dry; the viscera seem as if scorched up; they are affected with nausea, restlessness, and a burning thirst; and at no distant term they expire. Thirst, as if scorched up with fire. But by what method could they be restrained from making water? Or how can shame become more potent than pain? And even if they were to restrain themselves for a short time, they become swelled in the loins, scrotum, and hips; and when they give vent, they discharge the collected urine, and the swellings subside, for the overflow passes to the bladder.
2
If the disease be fully established, it is strongly marked; but if it be merely coming on, the patients have the mouth parched, saliva white, frothy, as if from thirst (for the thirst is not yet confirmed), weight in the hypochondriac region. A sensation of heat or of cold from the stomach to the bladder is, as it were, the advent of the approaching disease; they now make a little more water than usual, and there is thirst, but not yet great.
