With the exploding epidemic of diabetes around the world almost everyone knows someone whose life is touched by this disease. Professor Tattersall brings diabetes to life and gives us a fascinating look into how some very smart people tried to unravel the mysteries of diabetes across the centuries. For those who think that Atkins was the first to give us "low carb" diets just imaging eating the diet that army surgeon John Rollo inflicted on his patient Captain Meredith in 1797! Long before anyone understood how the pancreas worked (or that it was even involved as a cause of diabetes)physicians struggled to help their patients survive the mysterious "pissing evil." With great wit and a steady compassion for the sufferer Tattersall brings diabetes to life in a very readable, yet carefully researched an accurate account of this fascinating and very human condition.