Although pathological knowledge affords the best basis of therapy it is not always the sole basis. We cured malaria long before we knew its cause. Syphilis was controlled long before bacteriology was born, and all that we know of the cause of syphilis to-day is that it must be dependent upon some form of living organism having the power of indefinite reproduction. When we use the term diabetes niellitus let us clearly grasp the fact that we speak probably of a symptom rather than a disease;

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... the presence of sugar in the urine means a greater or less impairment, temporary or permanent, of the power of the organism to consume sugar; that while our knowledge of the starting point of such impairment is very imperfect, we have good reason for believing it may be as widely separated as Langerhans' islands in the pancreas, the liver, or several portions of the central nervous system; that during life, at least, we can rarely determine the point of origin in a given case.