Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1017

MATTHEW DOBSON (1735?-1784) Experiments and observations on the urine in a [sic] diabetes. (In Medical observations and inquiries. Vol. 5, (1776), pp. 298-316.) 20.8 cm.

Dobson was born in Yorkshire, studied medicine at Edinburgh where he graduated in 1756, and practiced in Liverpool. He served as physician at the Liverpool Infirmary for some ten years late in his career but scant information is available regarding other aspects of his private and professional life. However, it is known that he was an experimental physiologist as well as a skillful and experienced clinician. His most important and best known work is this paper on the sweet taste of the urine in diabetes mellitus. Dobson prepared it at Liverpool on November 20, 1774 (p. 316) and it was communicated to Medical observations and inquiries by John Fothergill (see No. 914 ff.). It is his most important contribution and follows the case of Peter Dickonson, a diabetic under Dobson's care. Dickonson's symptoms are very well described and compare well with those used in diagnosing diabetes today. He also detailed five experiments made with the blood and urine of his diabetic patients. It is here that he tells how he determined that the sweetish taste of diabetic urine is caused by sugar. He ended the paper with a discussion of his findings in a series of eight observations. This volume of Medical observations and inquiries also contains important papers by Fothergill (see Nos. 915-918) and William Hunter (see No. 942 ff.).

See Related Record(s): 914 942

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 3928

Gift of John Martin, M.D.