32 • Probe •Vol LXII • No. 4 • Sep–Dec 2023 HISTORY OF MEDICINE The Discovery of Diabetes Mellitus Diabetes mellitus is one of the world’s oldest known diseases. In diabetes mellitus, the term “diabetes” is derived from Greek, which means siphon (to pass through), and the term “mellitus” is derived from Latin, which means honeyed or sweetened. The condition was called madhumeha (honey urine) by ancient Indian physicians as the patient's urine would attract ants. The Coining of the Term The term “diabetes” was first coined by an ancient Greek physician, Aretaeus of Cappadocia (81–133 AD). Diabetes has been recognized as a serious disease for the last 3 millennia, and several descriptions of diabetes have been found in Egyptian writings, Indian and Chinese medical literature, and the works of ancient Greek and Arab physicians. However, Aretaeus was the first to accurately describe diabetes. In the 17th century, Thomas Willis (an anatomist and physician from England) added the term “mellitus” to the disease to describe the sweet taste of urine. This was a rediscovery of what the Indian physician Sushruta mentioned as sweet urine during the 7th century BC, of which Willis was not aware. Milestones in the Discovery of Diabetes Mellitus An important milestone in the history of diabetes is Claude Bernard’s (a French physiologist) discovery of the glycogenic action of the liver and the concept that diabetes occurs due to excess glucose production. In the 19th century, scientists hypothesized the role of the pancreas in the physiopathology of diabetes after conducting postmortem examinations of many diseased, atrophic pancreases and pancreases with pancreatic stones. However, as the pancreas was considered an exocrine organ, these findings were concluded as a chance phenomenon. It is then that Claude Bernard decided to test this hypothesis. Bernard proved that animal blood contained sugar even if sugar is not supplied through food. To prove this, Bernard put a few dogs on a carbohydrate-rich diet. Then, these dogs were killed soon after the consumption of the diet, and the presence of sugar in blood was examined. He was surprised to see the presence of sugars in hepatic veins. He observed the same in the control group as well (ie, the animals that were fed only meat). He then started analyzing samples of liver tissues only to observe the presence of large quantities of glucose, which was otherwise missing in other organs. Thus, he concluded that Aretaeus of Cappadocia Image source: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid- 101434447-img
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