246 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



time she was regularly treated with thyroid. She died even- 

 tually from heart failure. Murray's results have been amply 

 confirmed. 



Complete removal of the thyroid for tumours was per- 

 formed by Kocher and the Reverdins (1883) with unhappy 

 results, for the patients ultimately developed myxoedema, 

 treatment by thyroid medication being then unknown. Kocher 

 found, however, that, if a portion of the gland was left, symp- 

 toms were obviated. 



There can be no doubt that cretinism and myxcedema are 

 the results of diminished thyroid secretion, for both conditions 

 are alleviated by thyroid feeding, the differences between the 

 two depending entirely upon the age of onset. 



Let us now turn to the results of removal (thyroidectomy) 

 in animals. Schiff's important work in 1884 has already been 

 cited. His results are now of little value as records of thyroi- 

 dectomy, for he unwittingly removed the parathyroids in the 

 course of his operations. This mistake was repeated by those 

 who confirmed his results, and was not rectified until Gley 

 had preached the separate function of the parathyroids and 

 Kohn had described the internal glandules. The fatahty and 

 nervous symptoms recorded were largely attributable to this 

 error. Schiff, however, showed that some animals (rabbits 

 and rats) do not suffer from thyroid deprivation. According 

 to Gley, the immunity was only apparent, as in these animals 

 the accessory glandules had not been removed. Schiff was also 

 the first to point out that symptoms could be allayed by graft- 

 ing a portion of the thyroid into the abdominal cavity. 



A host of workers subsequently carried out thyroidectomies 

 — and all with such results as Schiff's. Horsley (1884), who 

 was the first to investigate the effect on the monkey, described 

 typical myxoedema, accompanied by nervous symptoms refer- 

 able to parathyroid deprivation. Additional species were 

 discovered to be insusceptible— birds by Allara (1885), and 

 herbivora by Sanguirica and Orrechia (1887). According to 

 Briesacher (1890), the immunity was merely a question of diet, 

 for all the immune animals were vegetarians. 



Later and more careful work by Gley, Horsley, Vincent 

 and Jolly, and others showed that the general effect of thyroi- 

 dectomy alone, in the young, was arrested development, in the 

 adult, a lowered state of function, with or without a myxoe- 

 dematous condition of the skin. Further, the older the animals, 

 the less were they affected. The following symptoms were 

 observed : Thickening and dryness of the integument, loss 

 of hair, wasting followed by adiposity, general weakness, 

 lowered temperature, sexlessness, nervous depression result- 

 ing in dullness and apathy, and lowered metabolism, including 



