Diabetes Talking

Question:

cc’d by email You might mention WHICH war.  It was the Afgan War.  The narrator was a physician trained at King’s College- Sir Arther Conan Doyle.  He modeled Sherlock Holmes on his favorite professor. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – It is recounted that at King’s College in the Strand around the time of the war, the Chief of Services would inevitably begin the year’s rounds by teaching "a singularly important principle of medicine." He asked a nurse to fetch him a sample of urine. He then talked at length about diabetes mellitus. "Diabetes," he said, "is a greek name; but the Romans noticed that the bees like the urine of diabetics, so they added the word mellitus which means sweet as honey. Well, as you know, you may find sugar in the urine of a diabetic…" By now, the nurse had returned with a sample of urine which the registrar promptly held up like a trophy. We stared at that straw colored fluid as if we had never seen such a thing before. The registrar then startled us. He dipped a finger boldly into the urine, then licked his finger with the tip of his tongue. As if tasting wine, he opened and closed his lips rapidly. Could he perhaps detect a faint taste of sugar? The sample was passed on to us for an opinion. We all dipped a finger into the fluid, all of us foolishly licked that finger. "Now," said the Registrar grinning, "you have learned the first principle of diagnosis. I mean the power of observation." We were baffled. We stood near the sluice room outside the ward, and in the distance, some anonymous patient was explosively coughing. "You see," the registrar said continuing triumphantly, "I dipped my MIDDLE finger into the urine, but licked my INDEX finger, not like all you chaps." — For your safety all my outgoing mail is sent after checking with Norton Virus Scan

Response:

<snip Hmmm…  Got the same joke in an e-mail the other day, except the subject was a bit different.  In this case, they were using a cadaver.  I won’t tell you where the professor stuck his finger.  Other than that, it was the same joke. — Type 2 http://users.bestweb.net/~jbove/ Julie Bove, posting from new account

Response:

"You see," the registrar said continuing triumphantly, "I dipped my MIDDLE finger into the urine, but licked my INDEX finger, not like all you chaps.

I have heard a similar story before (The patient was a horse in the version I’d heard)  but I sometimes tell a story, Pure fiction and the names are made up, but it is based (As are many good jokes) on historical fact. You see, in days of old, when folks were bold, And Diabetes just "invented" (Ok, so I like that format for a first line) Well, as it turns out there is more to diabetes than just Diabetes Mellitus.  now Diabetes actually means "Water Flows Easily" or some such, in short, the diagnostic indicator is Lots, and Lots of urine,  But as it turns out there are two major forms of Diabetes,  Here, in this Newsgroup we are usually interested in Diabetes Mellitus, but there is also Diabetes Insipidus.  Mellitus means "Sweet" or "Honey Like" Insipidus, "Weak or watery" It is important to figure out which as … Well, both may respond to diet but DIFFERENT DIETS. So, who do you tell the the difference?  Why taste of course, A DM patient the urine will taste sweet, DI, not so. So much for the historical fact part.  Now for the joke/story Dr. Claudius was a great physician, And he had a lot of patients who came to him with excessive urination.  Well one day, after testing a few too many patients urine for sugar, He went home to his lovely wife Cleo (Cleopatra)  Now Cleo was the light of his life, She was his reason for living and there was Nothing (Within his power) He would deny her, but as is often the case she had a brother, (I like the name conventions of "Hercules The Legendary Journeys TV shows so will use them here) His name was Nocountious.  And he was… Well he was not much, A petty thief he spent about half his time in bars and the other half behind them (Jail) Well, again as often happens, Cleo loved her brother, as only a sister can, and was once again asking her rich, successful husband Dr. Claudius to find him some honest work so he would not be behind bars so much. The next day, at the office, when a bunch more diabetic patients were queuing up for testing he suddenly exclaimed EUREKA (I found it). His nurse, Nurse Loveliness, Said (in a voice guaranteed to raise a DM’s blood glucose levels at least 20 mg/dl)  "Oh, What Is It Doctor?" He replied, I’ve found a way to give that bum Nocountious a job! "Oh That’s Great Doctor, What Is It?" Nurse Loveliness then cooed. He will drink just about anything, and then comment loudly on what he’s drinking.  So we set him up in an office, Set the urine samples up on a bar in front of him and take notes as to his comments.  I can see it now, Doctors from all over Greece will be sending samples to him.  There is just one problem, What do we call this facility? Nurse Loveliness then said, "Well, what can we call it, He’ll finally have a job so we could put LABOR in it’s name." Yes, Said the doctor, And he’ll be using his mouth so we could add in Oratory,  EUREKA! I’ve got it again, LABORATORY,  Yes, We will call it a LABORATORY,  LAB for short,  Yes, and we can then send samples out to the Lab. And so it has been ever since (I hope this story bears no resemblance to the truth, I make it up as I type and hardly ever type it exactly the same way twice.  Feel free to pass it on however, Epically if you are now wiping coffee/diet coke/water/whatever off your monitor) AND apologies for any spelling errors my clunker did not catch —               John F Davis in Delightful Detroit     Remove the obvious "no.spam." if replying via E-mail    Diabetic?  Visit http://go.compuserve.com/diabetesforum     No membership needed to read, AOL-IM members can post

Response:

It is recounted that at King’s College in the Strand around the time of the war, the Chief of Services would inevitably begin the year’s rounds by teaching "a singularly important principle of medicine." He asked a nurse to fetch him a sample of urine. He then talked at length about diabetes mellitus. "Diabetes," he said, "is a greek name; but the Romans noticed that the bees like the urine of diabetics, so they added the word mellitus which means sweet as honey. Well, as you know, you may find sugar in the urine of a diabetic…" By now, the nurse had returned with a sample of urine which the registrar promptly held up like a trophy. We stared at that straw colored fluid as if we had never seen such a thing before. The registrar then startled us. He dipped a finger boldly into the urine, then licked his finger with the tip of his tongue. As if tasting wine, he opened and closed his lips rapidly. Could he perhaps detect a faint taste of sugar? The sample was passed on to us for an opinion. We all dipped a finger into the fluid, all of us foolishly licked that finger. "Now," said the Registrar grinning, "you have learned the first principle of diagnosis. I mean the power of observation." We were baffled. We stood near the sluice room outside the ward, and in the distance, some anonymous patient was explosively coughing. "You see," the registrar said continuing triumphantly, "I dipped my MIDDLE finger into the urine, but licked my INDEX finger, not like all you chaps." — For your safety all my outgoing mail is sent after checking with Norton Virus Scan

Response: