Mackenzie quotes a case
from Trousseau, in which an individual afflicted with diabetes
insipidus passed 32 liters of urine daily and drank enormous
quantities of water. This patient subjected himself to severe
regimen for eight months,--although one day, in his agonies, he
seized the chamber-pot and drank its contents at once. Mackenzie
also mentions an infant of three who had polydipsia from birth
and drank daily nearly two pailfuls of water. At the age of
twenty-two she married a cobbler, unaware of her propensity, who
found that his earnings did not suffice to keep her in water
alone, and he was compelled to melt ice and snow for her. She
drank four pailfuls a day, the price being 12 sous; water in the
community was scarce and had to be bought. This woman bore 11
children. At the age of forty she appeared before a scientific
commission and drank in their presence 14 quarts of water in ten
hours and passed ten quarts of almost colorless urine. Dickinson
mentions that he has had patients in his own practice who drank
their own urine. Mackenzie also quotes Trousseau's history of a
man who drank a liter of strong French brandy in two hours, and
habitually drank the same quantity daily. He stated that he was
free from the effects of alcohol; on several occasions on a wager
he took 20 liters of wine, gaining his wager without visibly
affecting his nervous system.
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