The medicinal treatment of diabetes is exceedingly unsatisfactory. In a certain proportion of cases of diabetes cure may result by exclusive dietetic treatment. There are others in which the use of medicines is found to be of some service, but it may be stated positively that there are no cases which are curable by medicines without proper dietetic treatment.

Opium and codeia are successful in some instances in reducing the amount of sugar. Commencing with half-grain doses, the latter is to be gradually increased until ten or fifteen grains are taken in a day; alkalies, such as the citrate and acetates, are also occasionally found beneficial. Clemen's liquor arsenici bromati has attained success in some hands. Digestive tonics, aromatic bitters, mineral acids, and cod-liver oil are frequently indicated, and strychnine and ergot are to be employed as vasomotor tonics when desired. They regulate the arterial tension, and may reduce the quantity of urine and relieve the thirst.

The nitrogenous diet is apt to excite diarrhoea, which may be controlled by such remedies as salol, salicylate of bismuth, or castor oil.

For the intense craving for food experienced by some patients, with a hollow, sinking feeling at-the epigastrium, Roberts recommends a two- or three-grain asafoetida pill three times a day.