Q 01/05

The word 'diabetes' comes from a Greek word meaning what?

A) Sweetness of the blood

B) A passer-through or siphon

C) An unquenchable thirst

D) A wasting of the flesh

Answer · why

B) A passer-through or siphon

Apollonius of Memphis is credited with first using it around 230 BCE.

Q 02/05

Thomas Willis added 'mellitus' to the name in 1675 after noticing what about patients' urine?

A) It smelled of ammonia

B) It glowed

C) It was cloudy

D) It tasted sweet

Answer · why

D) It tasted sweet

Ancient Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians and Indians had all noticed the sweetness; in India the disease was 'honey urine' because it attracted ants.

Q 03/05

Which Egyptian manuscript from around 1500 BCE mentions 'too great emptying of the urine'?

A) The Book of the Dead

B) The Rosetta Stone

C) The Ebers papyrus

D) The Edwin Smith papyrus

Answer · why

C) The Ebers papyrus

It even recommends a drink to take for the condition.

Q 04/05

Type 2 of the condition was formerly known by what name?

A) Adult-onset

B) Sugar fever

C) Honey sickness

D) Water disease

Answer · why

A) Adult-onset

Rates have risen sharply since 1960 in step with obesity, and it is now increasingly diagnosed in children.

Q 05/05

Which two Canadians isolated and purified insulin in Toronto in 1921 and 1922?

A) Wilder Penfield and Norman Bethune

B) Frederick Banting and Charles Best

C) John Macleod and James Collip

D) William Osler and Charles Best

Answer · why

B) Frederick Banting and Charles Best

They worked in John Macleod's laboratory, with biochemist James Collip helping to purify the extract.