Recent History
January 1, 150
Total Dietary Regulation
Claudius Galenus makes errors in explaining diabetes which retards progress in knowledge for 1500 years.
Claudius Galenus (born 131 A.D.) saw two patients and introduced two ideas: first, that diabetes is a weakness of the kidneys, which can not hold back water and also are thirsty for fluid; second, that the urine consists of the unchanged drink. Galen's great authority maintained these errors for about 1500 years, and retarded progress in the knowl edge of diabetes.
January 1, 200
Total Dietary Regulation in the Treatment of Diabetes
Tchang Tchong-king, the greatest of Chinese physicians, describes diabetes in the year 200.
Chronological order here shifts the narrative to the Far East. According to Iwai, the first oriental description of diabetes was given in the year 200 by Tchang Tchong-king, perhaps the greatest of Chinese physicians. “There is a disease called ‘the disease of thirst,’ in which polyuria is the characteristic symptom. One may drink as much as ten liters per day, which is recovered in the urine.”
January 1, 600
A Chinese medical work of about the year 600 classifies four supposed groups of cases of diabetes.
A Chinese medical work of about the year 600 classifies four supposed groups of cases, and notes the symptoms of polyphagia, polydipsia, and polyuria. Still a later work mentions furunculosis.
January 1, 1500
A Venetian named Trincavella observes three cases of diabetes and thinks the sweet taste of pee is from the sweet drinks.
Trincavella (1476–1568), a Venetian, observed three cases of dia betes. In one, the etiology was attributed to persecution and grief. In another, the relatives are said to have demonstrated the truth of the Galenic doctrine that diabetic urine is the unchanged drink, by fre quently tasting the urine and finding the taste identical with what the patient had been drinking. Cantani suggests that the drink in this CaSe Was SWeet tea.
January 1, 1500
About the fifteenth century, diabetes was attributed to wine and high living.
Ancient History
Cairo, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
1552
B.C.E.
The Ebers Papyrus is the first known medical reference to diabetes mellitus.
["Diabetes and the Ebers Papyrus"]) by D. Lynn Loriaux, M.D., PhD
"Of great interest to endocrinologists is the opinion that in the Ebers Papyrus is the first known medical reference to diabetes mellitus. The reference is to a single phrase: "...to eliminate urine which is too plentiful."
"Unfortunately, the crucial word, asha, can mean both 'plentiful' and 'often,' and it is unclear whether the condition described was polyuria(increased volume of urine) or increased frequency of micturition, very often due to cystitis. The latter condition is much more common and therefore the more likely interpretation."
