18. On the Thymus 



The extirpation of the thymus often benefits myasthenic pa- 

 tients. There has to be thus some relation between this disease and 

 the gland which also shows signs of hyperfunction in successful 

 operations. If myasthenia is connected with the thymus and myo- 

 tonia is its mirror image, then there might also be some relation 

 between this gland and myotonia, which disease may be connected 

 with a hypo function of the thymus. 



There is a curious disproportionality between the size of the 

 thymus and the "size" of our knowledge about its function. If it 

 is a gland of internal secretion at all, then in early childhood it is 

 the biggest of such glands, while our knowledge about its function 

 is next to zero. Somehow, the thymus failed to excite the curiosity 

 of researchers. Treatises on endrocrinology, such as that of Pincus 

 and Thimann, have not even a chapter on it. This lack of interest 

 is probably due to the fact that the thymus can be extirpated with- 

 out harmful effects. If it is not taken out, nature herself eliminates 

 it by letting it atrophy in adolescence. If we can live without it, 

 then its function cannot be very important. This logic is impecca- 

 ble. The question is only whether nature does not follow a logic of 

 her own? Histologically, the thymus is a lymphoid tissue, part of 

 the lymphatic system, together with the spleen, bone marrow, and 

 lymph glands, though it has some peculiarities. So if the thymus is 

 a gland of internal secretion, then it may well be that the whole 

 lymphatic system is one, although it has other functions as well. 

 One could imagine that this gland produces a substance involved 

 in the process of building the body, in synthetizing its protein, 

 which substance is in greater demand when the building is going 

 on most actively, in early childhood. So in this period the lym- 



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