86 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS—1920 
concluded from many text books. But though it is 
difficult to give a mathematical way of measuring the 
resistance of the body to a general invasion by the 
Spirocheta, the time elapsing between the local and 
general infections permits us to have an idea of this 
resistance. 
That the thyroid plays a most important role in de- 
fending the organism against an invasion may also be 
proved by clinical symptoms. Nearly all authors de- 
scribe as the first clinical symptoms of secondary 
syphilis, skin eruptions; but these may be accompanied 
or even preceded by marked symptoms of a disturbed 
function of the thyroid gland. This was first described 
by Engel-Reimers (42), who found very frequently, 
especially in syphilitic women, all symptoms of what he 
called, “thyroidism.” Mauriac (43), has even described 
a “goitre aigu syphilitique secondaire.” Delpy (44), 
agrees with Engel Reimers, though, according to him, 
the eruption often is observed some time before the 
symptoms of thyroidism. As I am writing neither an 
essay on syphilis nor a study on dysthyroidism, I shall 
not try to describe the symptoms of dysthyroidism, 
which may be found in most modern books, for in- 
stance, in the quoted book of Harrower (33), or in a 
very exhaustive way in the book of Chvostek (45). 
At last I come to my own small number of experi- 
ments. I found that in four of the five patients who 
took thyroid during the period between the moment of 
infection and the beginning of serological changes was 
much longer than in the control patients. In the first 
case treated in this way, the Wassermann test became 
positive 12 weeks after the infection. In three other 
cases it took 10 weeks; in the fifth case 7 weeks. Now, 
I am quite aware that these few cases are not enough 
to prove anything with certainty, but they give us a 
right to continue our studies in this direction. Obvious- 
ly, it is of the greatest importance to make the period 
