46 BIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 



private or public charges. They have long 

 been known under the name of cretins. 



An examination of the physical condition 

 of these persons has disclosed the significant 

 fact that they all possess deficient thyroid 

 glands, and this discovery has led to the as- 

 sumption that the thyroid produces a hormone 

 which is essential to the growth and devel- 

 opment of the normal person. This belief is 

 abundantly supported by the success with 

 which cretinism and tendencies toward cretin- 

 ism can be in large part counteracted by thy- 

 roid treatment. Many of our so-called defec- 

 tive children are known to be cases in which 

 thyroid activity is reduced, and they approxi- 

 mate in many ways a mild form of cretinism. 

 In these cases, as well as in true cretinism, the 

 feeding of the patient with thyroid material, 

 with the throat sweetbreads of sheep, has been 

 followed almost invariably by most beneficial 

 results both physical and intellectual. In this 

 way children on a downward path of develop- 

 ment have been rescued from a trying form 

 of dissolution. 



Defective thyroids, however, are not limited 

 to childhood ; they may appear in adult life. 

 At this stage they cannot, of course, produce 



