54 INTERNAL SECRETION 



glands. He thinks that the hypertrophy of the parathyroids 

 which follows thyroidectomy is due to the fact that an antagonistic 

 organ has been removed. He remarks : " We have to suppose 

 that, under normal conditions, the function of the one gland is 

 controlled by the other, and that when this balance is disturbed 

 by the extirpation of one, the remaining organ becomes func- 

 tionally, and later organically, hypertrophied." Rudinger brings 

 the following as evidence in support of this theory : Moussu and 

 Charrin found that the exhibition of the parathyroid gland of 

 horses was followed by unfavourable symptoms in myxoedema, but 

 that in Graves's disease it had a very beneficial effect. Rudinger 

 believes that the hyper-function of the thyroid in Graves's disease 

 is restrained by the exhibition of parathyroid gland, while in 

 myxcedema the hypo-function is intensified. He is also inclined, 

 with Walbaum, to attribute the favourable action of Moebius's 

 serum and of rhodagen a preparation obtained from the milk 

 of thyroidless goats to the presence of a large proportion of 

 parathyroid secretion. " The removal of the thyroid permits of 

 an increased activity on the part of the parathyroids ; thus the 

 serum and the milk contain substances which, being stronger 

 than those in normal serum and milk, are better able to counteract 

 the activity of the thyroid gland." Rudinger also brings forward 

 the results obtained by Eppinger, Falta and Rudinger in their 

 investigation of the interrelationships which subsist between the 

 different glands possessing internal secretory functions. These 

 authors found that the effects of adrenalin upon dogs from which 

 the entire thyroid apparatus had been removed, differed markedly 

 from those which it exercised upon dogs in which the thyroid 

 gland only was lacking. After thyroidectomy, the subcutaneous 

 or intraperitoneal injection of adrenalin did not, as it invariably 

 does in normal animals, produce glycosuria, and the intravenous 

 injection of adrenalin was not followed by a rise of blood-pressure. 

 But in animals with tetany after thyroparathyroidectomy, the 

 same experiments provoked both the glycosuria and the rise in 

 blood-pressure. From these results the observers infer that the 

 thyroid secretion stimulates the sympathetic nerve, while that of 

 the parathyroids has an inhibitory effect upon it. Stimulation and 

 inhibition are so balanced by the activity of the two glands that, 

 under normal conditions, oscillation is possible within a very small 

 margin only. The suppression of the thyroid reduces the irrit- 

 ability of the sympathetic nerve, not only by robbing it of its 

 stimulating agent, but by releasing the inhibitory activity of the 

 parathyroid glands. With the extirpation of the parathyroids, the 

 inhibitory agent is removed and this brings in its train a con- 

 dition of hypersensibility of the sympathetic nerve. 



The evidence which Rudinger advances cannot be regarded 

 as a sufficient basis for his theory. The interrelationships between 

 the thyroid and parathyroid glands, and between the pancreas 



