i INTEKNAL PEOTECTIVE SECEETIONS 27 



secretion of the thyro-parathyroid apparatus serves mainly as 

 a physiological <l.i.uretic (stimulating the nutrition and specific 

 activity of the renal epithelium). He arrives at this conclusion 

 from studying the action of the gland-extract upon the kidney, 

 and noticed that the salutary effects of thyro-parathyroid organo- 

 therapy and of the halogenated fats which are its equivalent, are 

 entirely wanting or become less, with experimental alteration of 

 the kidney. 



IX. Schiff's ingenious idea of transplanting and grafting the 

 thyroid to avert the fatal effects of thyroidectomy opened up a 

 wide field of research, which is interesting both from the 

 physiological and from the therapeutic point of view. After he 

 had demonstrated that preventive intraperitoneal grafts of fresh 

 thyroid are capable of prolonging the life of dogs that were sub- 

 sequently deprived of their thyroids, it was natural to conclude 

 that the same treatment might obviate the serious consequences 

 of total thyroidectomy in man, and be a cure for spontaneous 

 myxoedema. 



Bircher (1889) was the first to graft a piece of human thyroid 

 into the abdomen of a dethyroidised patient, who exhibited 

 symptoms of cachexia. He obtained a temporary improvement 

 which was repeated after a few mouths on renewing the graft. 



Horsley (1890) attempted the cure of spontaneous myxoedema 

 by grafting under the skin or in the peritoneum, the thyroids of 

 sheep or monkeys (which are histologically very like those of man), 

 after proving that thyroidectomy in these animals produces a 

 syndrome which closely resembles human myxoedema. The results 

 were so encouraging that this method of cure was repeated in a 

 short time by many others, among them Lannelongue, Kocher, 

 Bettencourt and Serrano, Merlen, etc. 



The most interesting results were, however, obtained by 

 Eiselsberg (1892), who repeated Schiff's experiments on cats, trans- 

 planting an excised lobe not to the peritoneum, but to the thick- 

 ness of the abdominal wall, and then a month later when the 

 graft might be supposed to have taken excising the other lobe. 

 Of the many cats thus operated on, four long survived and 

 exhibited no morbid symptoms. Three months after grafting, 

 Eiselsberg exposed the transplanted gland, and found that it was 

 attached by vascular adhesions ; he then excised it again, and 

 found normal glandular structure under the microscope. Two 

 days after this second operation the animals developed acute 

 tetany, and soon died. It is thus possible, even if exceptional, 

 for the transplanted thyroid to become rooted in other than 

 its normal surroundings. This is an experimentum crucis, by 

 which the too - ingenious theory which Cyon founded entirely 

 upon the peculiar nervous and vascular relations of the thyroid 

 is invalidated. 



