The blooming of the French lilac

The history of diabetes mellitus is replete with many therapies, nearly all, including insulin, first given without any knowledge of a mechanism of action. Beginning with early Egyptian physicians who, according to the Ebers Papyrus of 1500 B.C.E., prescribed a mixture of cakes, wheat grains, fresh grits, green lead, earth, and water, up to the more recent introduction of the thiazolidinediones, knowledge of physiologic effects preceded by years...