82 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS—1920 
results from this treatment. Spengler (28), has writ- 
ten a little book, in which he states that he has actually 
been able to cure dementia paralytica with mercury and 
thyroid. His monograph, however, contains so much 
nonsense, that the only thing that may be concluded 
from it is that his two “cured” patients did not have 
dementia paralytica at all. Nevertheless, one of 
Spengler’s is perfectly right: There exists certain 
individuals with an increased sensitiveness to mercury ; 
and many of these patients may take mercury without 
any trouble if thyroid is given at the same time. Per- 
rin and Jeandelize (29, 30), have proved that thyroid- 
ectomized animals are intoxicated by much smaller 
quantities of mercury than normal ones. Wagner von 
Jauregg (31, 32), warmly recommends the combination 
of thyroid with other remedies in the treatment of 
syphilis. In one of his cases mercury had no infiuence; 
iodine did not agree with the patient. Then thyroid 
was tried. After some time iodine could be taken with- 
out trouble and the patient recovered. Some time later 
the patient died from an intercurrent disease; the post- 
mortem examination was made and a very atrophical 
thyroid was found. Harrower (33), too, notes the 
importance of organotherapy in syphilis. 
Though I have a great respect for clinical evidence, 
I have tried to control the influence of thyroid therapy 
in syphilis by laboratory methods—the Wassermann 
test. We may properly consider this test as a proof of 
methods to estimate the intensity of the reaction; but 
their value is limited. To prove this I should be obliged 
to write a monograph on the serodiagnosis of syphilis; 
so it must suffice for me to state that most authors are 
of the same opinion. Therefore, it is, in experimental 
work, better not to treat patients with a positive Was- 
sermann test with thyroid and to study the effect of 
treatment on this reaction, for changes in the intensity 
of the reaction do not prove much. On the other hand, 
