DIABETES IN TWINS

Abstract

A diabetic boy, Earl I., a patient of Dr. E. P. Joslin, recently brought his twin brother for treatment of diabetes. Earl, being a well trained diabetic patient, had discovered sugar in his brother's urine and had placed him on a regimen somewhat similar to his own. In looking over our records I was able to find three other instances of diabetes in twins, making a total of four in approximately 6,000 cases of true diabetes. Dr. Russell Wilder of the Mayo Clinic and Dr. Julian M. Wolfsohn of San Francisco have generously given me the data of two other instances, and in the literature seven reports of diabetes in twins are available. Such a series compels consideration of genetic factors and the rôle of inheritance in human diabetes. REPORT OF CASES Case 1. —Kückens¹ presented a family tree showing paralysis agitans and diabetes in three generations, including a