STUDIES ON DIABETES INSIPIDUS. I

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Abstract
Diabetes insipidus has been produced in dogs by cauterizing the floor of the 3rd ventricle. The mammillary bodies are the site of effective lesion. Diabetes insipidus is an irritation rather than a deficiency phenomenon for it is produced by slight injury to the proper area but not by severe injury to or depression of that area. The diuresis must be due to a substance produced at the site of causative disturbance as a result of the irritation, which acts directly or indirectly as a diuretic, for: (a) the hypophysis would not seem to be responsible for it since hypophysectomy without injury to the proper area in the floor of the 3rd ventricle fails to produce diabetes insipidus, which, however, is produced in hypophysectomized animals by injury to that area; (b) the thirst of diabetes insipidus is secondary to the diuresis, for the diuresis develops in operated animals restricted to their average pre-operative water intake and quickly produces manifestations of desiccation in diabetic animals deprived of water; and (c) neither the autonomic nor somatic nervous systems are concerned in the diuresis, for diabetes insipidus runs its typical course after transection of the spinal cord at the level of the 8th cervical vertebra, double vagotomy below the diaphragm, and paralysis of the parasympathetic nervous system with atropia. Cross transfusions between severely diabetic and normal animals performed under novocain anesthesia failed to alter the per min. volume urine output in some experiments, caused a brief diuresis over a period of 4-6 min. in others. The latter result was never obtained in cross transfusion between normal animals.

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