THE THYROID APPARATUS 83 



v. Wagner and Schlagenhaufer were unable to produce goitre 

 in young dogs by means of sediment obtained from the water 

 of a goitre-spring in Zeltweg (Styria). 



McCarrison affirms that goitre can be produced in man by 

 the exhibition of the residuum left after filtering goitre-water. 



Interesting experiments, intended to throw light on the 

 etiology of goitre, were latterly undertaken by Wilms and 

 E. Bircher. They found that it was possible to produce both 

 nodose and parenchymatous goitres in apes and dogs, and, more 

 particularly in rats, by giving them water from certain springs. 

 Moreover, when filtered by means of a Berkefeld filter, this water 

 invariably produced goitrous degeneration of the thyroid gland, 

 while the deposit was inactive. From these results the authors 

 conclude that goitre is of toxic, not miasmatic, origin. 



v. Wagner and Schlagenhaufer were unable to confirm the 

 results described by Halsted, Lanz, Marine and Lenhart, namely, 

 that the descendants of female animals with reduced thyroid 

 activity frequently show goitre, thyroid insufficiency and stages 

 of cretinism. 



v. Wagner and Schlagenhaufer supply some interesting facts 

 concerning endemic cretinism in animals. Goitres are of by no 

 means rare occurrence in certain species (pig, calf, dog), but 

 cretinism in animals appears to be extremely rare. v. Wagner 

 and Schlagenhaufer give descriptions and very instructive 

 drawings of five cretinous dogs which came under their notice. 

 The conspicuous symptoms were clumsiness of shape, broad short 

 skull, dry, scaly skin, hairless tail, defective sense of hearing, 

 .apathy, indolent and clumsy movements, lack of appetite, and 

 retarded metabolism. Microscopic examination revealed a peculiar 

 change in the skin, namely, considerable deposits of a substance 

 which, when treated with ruemotoxylin-eosin, coloured blue. 

 The same substance was found in the skin of thyroidectomized 

 goats. The thyroid gland of these cretinous animals varied in 

 .size but slightly from the normal, and showed no histological 

 changes worth mentioning. The colloid contents were large, the 

 follicular epithelium scanty, but there were no symptoms of 

 degeneration. The thymus showed signs of premature involution. 

 Both the clinical symptoms of cretinism and the cutaneous changes 

 disappeared after the exhibition of thyroid gland, to reappear, 

 however, as soon as the treatment was suspended. 



SUBSTITUTION THERAPY. 



The results which have been obtained from time to time by 

 the substitution of the thyroid gland have a clinical, as well as a 

 physiological, importance. Schiff was the first (1884) to whom 

 the idea occurred of overcoming the symptoms of suppression 

 by means of transplantation. He transplanted fresh thyroid 

 glands into the peritoneal cavity of thyroidectomized dogs, and 



