ABSTRACT
George Owen Rees was one of those enterprising physicians and chemists who were early in the field in studying the chemical changes in the blood in disease. George Owen Rees also made quantitative analyses for albumin and urea in the serum and urine of patients with kidney disease, and Richard Bright often mentioned his help. His analysis was the first quantitative estimation of sugar in the blood. Bence Jones's researches with diabetics showed that sugar is found in the urine when sugar-forming food is withheld from the patient. He suggested that the disease might be due to blockage of the action of oxygen on the non-nitrogenous constituents of the food and tissues. The tendency to acidity in diabetes, Bence Jones treated this disease with ammonium carbonate and other alkaline solutions to stop the formation of sugar in the urine. The required courses were in anatomy and physiology, theory and practice of medicine, chemistry, and materia medica.
