ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 59 



feet has been explained and largely cured by a knowledge of the inter- 

 nal secretion of the thyroid gland. Formerly these cases were doomed 

 to remain semi-imbeciles. They were repulsive in appearance, with 

 etunted growth, facial blankness, tongue protruding from half-open 

 mouth, trunk large with pendulous abdomen and short stumpy limbs. 

 A dull, apathetic mentality was always in evidence. An implantation 

 of the thryoid in the abdominal cavity of dogs by Schiff showed that this 

 gland would functionate even after its removal or absence from its 

 normal location. From this it was but a step to demonstrate that by 

 administering an extract of the thyroid gland by the mouth, the symp- 

 toms due to its abnormal absence in the child would be removed. The 

 arrested, perverted growth and mental dulness due directly to the ab- 

 sence of this important internal secretion can thus be easily corrected bj 

 giving the dry extract from the thyroid of an animal. A whole class of 

 hopeless defectives has thus been rehabilitated. 



Hydrophobia 



This fearful disease, produced by the bite of a rabid animal, is one 

 to which children are peculiarly disposed on account of their close asso- 

 ciation with domestic animals and their lack of judgment in failing to 

 recognize sickness or distemper among them. Just here can well be 

 shown the disastrous results of some of the efforts of those peculiar peo- 

 ple wdio suffer from "Zoophil psychosis." According to Frothingham 

 there were but 38 rabid dogs in England in 1892, but at this time the 

 authorities removed the "cruel muzzle" owing to an agitation by the 

 "dog lovers." As a result, during the next five years 1,602 dogs, as 

 well as many other animals, and 51 human beings died from this agon- 

 izing disease. Even if proper means of prevention are not enforced 

 and individuals are bitten by rabid animals, the mortality can now be 

 rery largely reduced. The Pasteur treatment has already lowered 

 the death rate from between 6 per cent, and 14 per cent, to well under 

 1 per cent. This is true all over the world. Even the dogs, as well as 

 •hildren and adults, have profited by Pasteur's efforts at stamping out 

 hydrophobia. 



Vaccination 



The prevention and change in the severity of small-pox by vaccina- 

 tion have been of largest benefit to children, as this loathesome disease is 

 especially fatal and disfiguring at this time. Of 3,164 deaths in the 

 great Montreal epidemic, 85 per cent, were in children under ten years. 

 When vaccination is performed in infancy, the disease is prevented dur- 

 ing the period of growth or so altered as to be innocuous. Early vac- 

 cination has completely changed the character and age period of small- 

 pox: it was formerly so essentially a child's disease as to be called 



