Observations on a Case of Spontaneous Diabetes Mellitus in a Dog

A case of spontaneous diabetes in a female dog eleven years of age is described. The clinical picture closely resembled that of human diabetes mellitus. As special particulars the authors mention the large quantities of insulin which were needed to check the glycosuria; the development of acromegalic features during the course of the disease; the finding of extremely scarce islets of Langerhans with a loss of beta cells; and a preponderance of eosinophilic cells in the pituitary. The authors express the assumption that in some cases spontaneous diabetes in the dog is based on an overproduction of growth hormone (“diabetogenie hormone”) and therefore is similar in its patho genesis to the diabetes provoked by Houssay and Young in laboratory animals by the injection of this hormone. A certain analogy with the human disease is also pointed out.