A history of diabetes mellitus or how a disease of the kidneys evolved into a kidney disease

(Top) A sick lady with her physician. The dropped urine flask (matula) indicates that the condition is hopeless. (Bottom) The patient has died, and a postmortem examination is in progress. Note the relative size of the kidneys, in the upper center part of the figure, relative to the size of the liver, in the hand of the prosector, and that of the lungs and heart, next to his left foot. The story told in this 13th century illustration can be taken as an allegory of that of diabetes until the first part of the 20th century when excessive urine that was sweet indicated a poor prognosis, and at autopsy the kidneys were found to be engorged and hypertrophied. Reprinted with permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS. Ashmole 399, folio 34r.