_Special precautions necessary in operating on diabetic patients._--It is self-evident that a person with diabetes is no less likely to develop appendicitis, gallstones, or cancer than he would be without diabetes. Consequently, serious operations are occasionally necessary. The danger from such procedures is many times greater in diabetic patients than in others, unless the diabetes is closely controlled. Formerly one out of every three operations on diabetic patients terminated fatally. This was because the anesthetic, ether or chloroform, provoked acid poisoning, and because the enfeebled patient was little prepared to withstand the shock of loss of blood, and injury. The added danger of diabetes may be avoided if the patient is in good condition before he goes to operation, and if acidosis is promptly combated with insulin. It is wise for the diabetic patient to employ only a very skillful surgeon, and to make certain either that he is familiar with the treatment of diabetes, or that he has associated with him some physician who has had a considerable experience with diabetes. MISCELLANEOUS COMPLICATIONS _Arteriosclerosis._--When we pass the age of thirty-eight, we are enjoying life which was denied our grandparents. The expectancy of life for a newborn baby in 1860 was thirty-eight years. Now it is nearly sixty years. This accounts, in a large measure, for the specially rapid increase in the amount of diabetes among people more than forty-five, and for the larger incidence today of other diseases of a chronic type. Hardening of the arteries, or arteriosclerosis, is a complication with which older diabetic patients are frequently afflicted. As has been said, arteriosclerosis may be a cause of diabetes in a predisposed person, but be that as it may, diabetes, once established, unless controlled, aggravates and intensifies disease of the arteries. It is, therefore, important for the older diabetic patient to make a serious effort to avoid arteriosclerosis by keeping his diabetes checked. Most of the complications which harass and endanger the older patient are due to hardening of the arteries. In this disease, the elastic contracting tissue in the hollow muscular tubes that carry blood is replaced, bit by bit, with scar tissue.