3. After nausea, vomiting or a lung complication, there are headache,
delirium, abdominal pain, rapid labored breathing, sweetish odor of the
breath, stupor, rapid feeble pulse, coma and death within a few days.
Recovery.--Instances of cure in true diabetes are rare.
Treatment. Preventive.--The use of starchy and sugary articles of diet
should be restricted in families with a marked disposition to this
disease. Sources of worry should be avoided and he should lead an even
quiet life, if possible, in an equable climate. Flannel and silk should be
worn next to the skin, and the greatest care should be taken to promote
its action. A lukewarm and, if tolerably robust, a cold bath should be
taken every day. An occasional Turkish bath is useful.
Diet.--Let the patients eat food of easy digestion, such as veal, mutton
and the like, and abstain from all sorts of fruit and garden stuff. In
Johns Hopkins' Hospital these patients are kept for three or four days on
the ordinary ward diet, which contains a moderate amount of
carbo-hydrates, in order to ascertain the amount of sugar excretions. For
two days more the starches are gradually cut off. They are then placed on
the following standard non-carbohydrate diet.
Breakfast: 7:30, six ounces of tea or coffee; four ounces of beefsteak,
mutton chops without bone, or boiled ham; one or two eggs.
Lunch: 12:30, six ounces of cold roast beef; two ounces celery, fresh
cucumbers or tomatoes with vinegar, olives, pepper and salt to taste, five
drams of whisky with thirteen ounces of water, two ounces of coffee
without milk or sugar.
Dinner: 6:00 P. M., six ounces of clear bouillon; seven and a half ounces
of roast beef; one and one-half drams of butter; two ounces of green salad
with two and a half drams of vinegar, five drams of olive oil, or three
tablespoonfuls of some well-cooked green vegetable: three sardines; five
drams of whisky with thirteen ounces of water.
Supper: 9:00 P. M., two eggs, raw or cooked, thirteen ounces of water .
The following is a list of articles which a diabetes patient may take as
given by one of the best authorities in the world on diabetes:
Liquids: Soups.--Ox tail, turtle bouillon and other clear soups. Lemonade,
coffee, tea, chocolate and cocoa; these to be taken without sugar, but
they may be sweetened with saccharin. Potash or soda water and
appollinaris, or the Saratoga-vichy and milk in moderation may be used.
[330 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
Animal Food.--Fish of all sorts, including crabs, oysters, salt and fresh
butcher's meat (with the exception of liver), poultry and game, eggs,
buttermilk, curds and cream cheese.
Bread.--Gluten and bran bread, almond and cocoanut biscuits.
Vegetables.--Lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, chickory, sorrel, radishes,
asparagus, water-cress, mustard and cress, cucumber, celery and endives;
pickles of various sorts.
Fruits.--Lemons and oranges, currants, plums, cherries, pears, apples
(tart), melons, raspberries and strawberries may be taken in moderation.
Nuts, as a rule, allowable.