SPONTANEOUS DIABETES IN A DOG

The picture is one of a true diabetes mellitus, first attracting attention after miscarriage. Although the G : N ratio sank from 3 : 1 on 10 gm. of nitrogen to 1.7 : 1 after 3 days' fasting, the disease progressed steadily in spite of a long continued carbohydrate-free diet. Together with the usual complications of diabetes, a malignant tumor of the thymus developed, so that after 5 months' observations a slow death was forestalled by chloroform. The most striking feature at autopsy was the large, apparently normal pancreas, which exhibited histologically marked changes in the islands of Langerhans, extreme hydropic degeneration and exhaustion of granules, involving both alpha and beta cells, but especially the latter, and replacement of some islands by fibrous tissue.