2.  If this idle ingurgitation of too much vinous spirit be daily practised, the urinary branch of absorbents at length gains an habit of inverting its motions, whenever the lacteals are much stimulated; and the whole or a great part of the chyle is thus daily carried to the bladder without entering the circulation, and the body becomes emaciated.  This is one kind of chronic diabetes, and may be distinguished from the others by the taste and appearance of the urine; which is sweet, and the colour of whey, and may be termed the chyliferous diabetes.

3.  Many children have a similar deposition of chyle in their urine, from the irritation of worms in their intestines, which stimulating the mouths of the lacteals into unnatural action, the urinary branch of the absorbents becomes inverted, and carries part of the chyle to the bladder:  part of the chyle also has been carried to the iliac and lumbar glands, of which instances are recorded by Haller, t. vii. 225. and which can be explained on no other theory:  but the dissections of the lymphatic system of the human body, which have yet been published, are not sufficiently extensive for our purpose; yet if we may reason from comparative anatomy, this translation of chyle to the bladder is much illustrated by the account given of this system of vessels in a turtle, by Mr. Hewson, who observed, “That the lacteals near the root of the mesentery anastomose, so as to form a net-work, from which several large branches go into some considerable lymphatics lying near the spine; and which can be traced almost to the anus, and particularly to the kidneys.”  Philos.  Trans. v. 59. p. 199—­Enquiries, p. 74.

4.  At the same time that the urinary branch of absorbents, in the beginning of diabetes, is excited into inverted action, the cellular branch is excited by the sympathy above mentioned, into more energetic action; and the fat, that was before deposited, is reabsorbed and thrown into the blood vessels; where it floats, and was mistaken for chyle, till the late experiments of the ingenious Mr. Hewson demonstrated it to be fat.

This appearance of what was mistaken for chyle in the blood, which was drawn from these patients, and the obstructed liver, which very frequently accompanies this disease, seems to have led Dr. Mead to suspect the diabetes was owing to a defect of sanguification; and that the schirrosity of the liver was the original cause of it:  but as the schirrhus of the liver is most frequently owing to the same causes, that produce the diabetes and dropsies; namely, the great use of fermented liquors; there is no wonder they should exist together, without being the consequence of each other.

5.  If the cutaneous branch of absorbents gains a habit of being excited into stronger action, and imbibes greater quantities of moisture from the atmosphere, at the same time that the urinary branch has its motions inverted, another kind of diabetes is formed, which may be termed the aqueous diabetes.  In this diabetes the cutaneous absorbents frequently imbibe an amazing quantity of atmospheric moisture; insomuch that there are authentic histories, where many gallons a day, for many weeks together, above the quantity that has been drank, have been discharged by urine.