Joslin's Diabetes Mellitus (repost)

We are pleased to present this 14th edition of Joslin's Diabetes Mellitus. This textbook continues to evolve and address the newest and most important insights into this very old but very challenging disease. Indeed, as this book goes to press, despite multiple medical and scientific advances, we are facing a worldwide epidemic of diabetes.

This involves a steady increase in type 1 diabetes and almost an exponential increase in type 2 diabetes. The latter is accompanied by a parallel increase in obesity, the metabolic syndrome, and other closely related disorders. Thus we are at a fascinating point in the evolution of diabetes and a fascinating point in the evolution of a book devoted to this disease.

The first edition of the Joslin textbook was published in 1916, a single-handed contribution by a man of extraordinary dedication, vision, and energy, Dr. Elliott P. Joslin. Dr. Joslin began his practice in 1898 in the pre-insulin era, and in this setting, developed a unique understanding of the natural history of diabetes. This perspective was clearly evident in the first edition, which was published some five years before the discovery of insulin by Banting, Best, Macleod, and Collip.