Mirsky reviews the basic factors responsible for diabetes mellitus. There is a hereditary factor which limits the efficiency of one or more of the regulatory mechanisms responsible for normal metabolism. There are many precipitating factors, among which emotional stress is one of the most important. He quotes the work of Selye and Long which demonstrates the chain of reactions by which psychic tension disturbs the function of the adrenal cortex, which results in hormonal imbalance. He believes that only when a psychic trauma reactivates some infantile neurosis on a preverbal level can one expect the development of diabetes. The psychological factors responsible for obesity and the prevalence of obesity in diabetics is also discussed. Mirsky very succinctly ends this penetrating study with a plea for physicians to 'treat the urine less and the patient more'.