CLINICAL CALORIMETRY

Abstract

The treatment of diabetes by the method of prolonged fasting has been conspicuously successful in recent years. The present paper deals with the measurement of the respiratory exchange and the total heat production of three patients, and supplements Paper 17 of this series by Allen and Du Bois,¹which contains a review of the literature. The patients were: A diabetic woman who had been fasted to a state of emaciation, and who had a low tolerance for carbohydrate. A diabetic man who had had the disease in a mild form, who showed a tolerance for 40 gm. of carbohydrate, but who was made completely diabetic (D: N = 3.84) on the second day after the administration of a diet containing considerable quantities of protein and fat. Subsequently, virtual starvation led within sixty hours to the disappearance of the sugar from the urine. A diabetic man