496 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



state that by immunizing rabbits with goiter water which was free from all bacteria 

 or other cultivable organisms, they have gotten with the blood of such immunized 

 rabbits a definite deviation of the complement reaction, as against the suppositious 

 organism in the water. By means of the epiphanin reaction they believe they have 

 demonstrated the existence of an antibody opposed to microorganismal albumin. 



Kolle (1909) attempted to test the theory that intestinal parasites bore a relation 

 to endemic goiter. McCarrison (1909) was of the opinion that the agent of goiter was in 

 the intestinal tract, because of the prompt results obtained in his experience by the giv- 

 ing of a single or repeated doses of thymol. He (191 1) tested this hypothesis experi- 

 mentally by mixing the feces of goitrous men with sterilized soil and he fouled water 

 with this mixture by pouring it through a specially constructed box. In one of these 

 boxes he placed 500 earthworms on the assumption that they might be an intermediary 

 host of the infecting agent. Water from the first box was given to six female goats and 

 from the second with the earthworms to seven female goats. These goats were permit- 

 ted to consume this highly polluted water for 64 days with the following results: First, 

 loss of weight due doubtless to confinement in a small hut for the 64 days of the experi- 

 ment; second, many of them suffered from diarrhea; third, 50 per cent of the animals 

 showed marked enlargement of the thyroid gland, most marked on the right side. 

 The thyroids of three goats showed no enlargement. The enlargements were of various 

 degree. McCarrison gives the average weight of the normal thyroid of the goat of 

 Gilgat as rcmrij of the body weight. The enlarged gland of the goats in the experiment 

 weighed from -^^ to -ywir P^^t of the body weight. In both batches receiving the 

 fouled water the results observed were the same. 



Microscopical examination of the enlarged organs by McCarrison showed "various 

 degrees of dilatations of the vesicles and no alterations in the connective tissue stroma 

 of the enlarged glands. The hypertrophy was due wholly to the distension of the 

 vesicles with colloid and to the formation of new vesicles from intravesicular masses 

 of cells." He concludes: (i) An hypertrophy of the thyroid gland of goats may be 

 induced by infecting the water supply with feces from sufferers from goiter. It is at 

 present impossible to state whether this hypertrophy is due to the action of the infect- 

 ing agent of goiter or only to the organic impurity of the water thus contaminated. 

 (2) Earthworms do not appear to be concerned in the spread of goiter. (3) The micro- 

 scopic appearances described are the earliest changes in the formation of parenchyma- 

 tous goiter. 



One of the most interesting recent discoveries in relation to a parasitic thyroiditis 

 is found in the publication of Carlos Chagas (191 1). This author, cited by Schitten- 

 helm and Weichardt, found in an insect, a Brazilian bedbug (barbeiro, Conochinus 

 megisius), a flagellate which he identified as part of the developmental cycle of Try- 

 panosoma minasense Chagas, which he had discovered in the silky monkey. If the 

 infected bedbugs were allowed to bite this variety of monkey the latter received a blood 

 infection with the organism. The bedbug is therefore the intermediary host and the 

 incubation period after the bite is eight days. Chagas undertook to determine the 

 original host for this organism and found in the State of Minas Geraes, especiallv in 



