218 - Diabetes and laboratory in the nineteenth century

Diabetes and laboratory in the nineteenth century Arnaldo Cantani reports in 1872 a theory about the etiology of diabetes mellitus that according to him is a disease in the “material metabolism”. The sugar rises since it is not burned by the body of the diabetic patient. The not burning theory suggests to Cantani a further hypothesis: the blood of the diabetic patients contains a new sugar, that they cannot burn since it is different from the glucose. He uses laboratory tests to demonstrate the difference between the sugar present in the blood of the diabetics, that he calls since 1865 “paraglucose”, and the glucose, present in the urine. While the chemical methods do not demonstrate any difference between the sugar in the blood and that in the urine the polarimeter demonstrates a difference; the urine deviates light toward right, the blood does not cause any deviation. Cantani concludes that they are different sugars and they should have different names: “paraglucose” for the sugar in the blood and “glucose” for the dextrorotatory glucose present in the urine of diabetic patient.