Re: from Agnosia to diagnosis to the Pissing Evile
Perhaps it is general knowledge, but the word dia(gnosis) means to know by going through a process (what process do you employ in interpreting a chest film, or, applying the mental status... ). The prefix (dia) as in diameter means to go through (a diameter meters a circle by cutting the circle at his greatest expanse). Diaphoresis, diaphragm, diabetes... Diabetes "The insulin story begins, of course, as other medical stores begin, at the bedside-with the taking of history and an appraisal of the patient's general health. The history would be loss of weight, debility, and general malaise, of intractable thirst, **the continual passing of urine that led to a seventeenth-century London surgeon's describing diabetes as the 'pissing evile,'** and apparently a susceptibility to infections." The Pissing Evile (1983) Chapter 18 in Medawar's, The Threat and the Glory, Harper Collins 1990. Similarly, diabetes insipidus as in mellitus: refer to excessive volume of urine passing through the body. Andy Lautin, MD Dept of Psychiatry New York University School of Medicine