Kitap 2
2
But if it increase still more, the heat is small indeed, but pungent, and seated in the intestines; the abdomen shrivelled, veins protuberant, general emaciation, when the quantity of urine and the thirst have already increased; and when, at the same time, the sensation appears at the extremity of the member, the patients immediately make water. Hence, the disease appears to me to have got the name of diabetes, as if from the Greek word διαβήτης (which signifies a siphon), because the fluid does not remain in the body, but uses the man’s body as a ladder (διαβάθρη), whereby to leave it.Altogether, this interpretation is so unsatisfactory, that I was almost tempted to alter the text quite differently from Wigan and Ermerins, and to read ὁκοῖόν τις διαβησείων, when the passage might be rendered thus — it got the name of diabetes, as if signifying one having a frequent desire of descending, because the fluid does not remain in the system, but uses the man’s person as a ladder for its exit. At all events, the reading of Wigan and Ermerins seems inadmissible; for how can the two comparisons, to a siphon, and to a ladder, be admitted together? It is possible, however, that διαβάθρῃ is faulty, and that we ought to read διαβήτῃ. They stand out for a certain time, though not very long, for they pass urine with pain, and the emaciation is dreadful; nor does any great portion of the drink get into the system, and many parts of the flesh pass out along with the urine.
