THE THYROID GLAND IN MEDICINE. 481 



THE THYROID GLAND IN MEDICINE.* 



By PEAKCE bailey, M. D. 



IN the past few years a remedy has been discovered for certain 

 conditions hitherto regarded as incurable, which is certain in 

 its action, and which for the beneficence of its results stands un- 

 rivaled in therapeutics ; and, since from the infrequency of the 

 diseases which it cures but little is known of this agent outside of 

 the medical profession, it has appeared to me that a short descrip- 

 tion of the development and application of the thyroid treatment, 

 one of modern medicine's greatest achievements, should prove of 

 interest to any one who cares to observe the advances of medical 

 science. The task is the more pleasant from the fact that the use 

 in medicine of the thyroid gland of animals is a logical conclu- 

 sion from adequate premises, and because the thyroid forms one 

 of the few medicinal agents in our possession which are not given 

 on purely empirical grounds. 



It is a generally familiar fact that the majority of drugs are 

 prescribed because medical history records that, for some un- 

 known reason, they have proved effectual in the diseases in which 

 they are administered, though why they should do so remains 

 unexplained. In certain conditions mercury has a specific action, 

 the nature of which is absolutely unknown. Quinine had cured 

 the Countess Chinchon (and hence the name cinchona) of her 

 ague centuries before a clever Frenchman discovered that ma- 

 laria resulted from the activity in the blood of a vegetable para- 

 site on which Peruvian bark exerts a restraining influence. 



So it is with most of the remedies which the physician em- 

 ploys : he uses them because experience has shown that they will 

 do good in the conditions in which he prescribes them, although 

 he has not learned why. But in the use of animal thyroid the 

 physician knows that he has a sovereign remedy, and he also 

 knows the reasons for the brilliant results of its proper applica- 

 tion. To appreciate the philosophy of the action of this agent 

 requires the understanding of a few facts in anatomy and physi- 

 ology which relate to what the thyroid gland is and to what 

 it does. 



In man the thyroid gland lies deep in the neck, in front and 

 at the sides of the windpipe, and is covered by skin and muscle ; 

 its deep situation renders it difficult to be felt in the living sub- 

 ject. The thyroid belongs to the class of glands known as duct- 

 less that is, there is no canal or duct by which the secretions 

 of the gland are carried out. Its function, like the function of 



* Read at Saratoga, September 2, 1896, before the American Social Science Association. 

 VOL LI. 3*7 



