In congenital nephrogenic diabetes insipidus(cNDI), polyuria and polydipsia are present from birth,as the kidney is unable to concentrate urine despiteelevated concentrations of the antidiuretic hormonearginine-vasopressin.1 In ancient Greek medicine,physiology was, needless, to say, an as yet fairlyundeveloped specialty among medico-philosophers,based as they were mainly on the Hippocratic medicaltheory of the four humours (blood, phlegm, yellowbile, and black bile) and the “pneuma” (Greek: πνε?-μα, pneuma ≈ air ≈ spirit ≈ the vital force of life).2Thus, such a complex context as that of cNDI wasstill terra incognita.
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