RELATIONS OF THE ORGANS TO ONE ANOTHER. 607 



indication of a cessation in the functions of the gland. Then the grafted 

 piece of thyroid, which showed normal gland-tissue, was removed. The 

 very next day tetany resulted, and the animal died at the end of the 

 third day. 



It is also important to learn that it is possible to prevent the severe 

 disturbances resulting from the ablation of the organ, by injecting thyroid 

 juice into a vein or under the skin, and even by feeding it, or raw thyroid, 

 directly. In fact, it is even possible to improve the condition of the 

 patient who has already begun to feel the effects of the operation. It is 

 seldom that a therapeutic conception can be demonstrated so clearly 

 and so strikingly as in the treatment of Cachexia strumipriva, and true 

 myxedema, by means of thyroid preparations. The swelling of the skin 

 goes down, and the mental faculties are noticeably improved. In a short 

 time the habits of the patient are so changed that almost nothing remains 

 to indicate the original severe disease. 



As soon as the action of the thyroid gland became understood, attempts 

 were made to isolate the active principle; but, up to the present time, 

 such attempts have been in vain. It was indeed believed, for a 

 short time, that the goal had been reached when E. Baumann, 1 after 

 making the important discovery that the thyroid glands of many animals 

 contain iodine, succeeded in isolating an amorphous substance, the so-called 

 iodo-thyrin (or thyro-iodine). To-day the relation of this substance to 

 the organ is still very vague. It contains phosphorus and about nine 

 per cent of iodine. Now there is no doubt that iodine itself has an 

 effect upon the thyroid gland, and, in fact, even when it is administered, 

 not in the form of an organic compound, but as free iodine. Often an 

 existing swelling of the gland subsides. It is still an open question how 

 the iodine acts, but we are aware that it has a favorable effect upon 

 various other nitration processes and facilitates, for example, the absorp- 

 tion of exudates. To be sure, iodine apparently has a quite specific 

 action upon the thyroid gland. The fact, however, that iodine may be 

 absent from a normal organ, makes it seem doubtful whether one is on 

 the right road in assuming that iodo-thyrin is the active principle of the 

 gland. It seems that possibly too much attention has been paid to the 

 iodine constituent. It also must not be forgotten that we have no 

 guarantee for assuming that iodo-thyrin is itself a simple substance. It 

 is more probably a mixture of several different products. At all events, 

 it is certain that the gland itself is more active than iodo-thyrin, and so 

 are all the preparations which contain as many glandular constituents 

 as possible. 



1 E. Baumann: Z. physiol. Chem. 21, 319 (1895-96). Baumann and Roos: ibid. 

 21, 481 (1895-96). E. Baumann: ibid. 22, 1 (1896-97). E. Roos: ibid. 22, 16 

 (1896-97); 25, 1 and 242 (1898). A. Oswald: ibid. 23, 265 (1897). 



