CHAPTER VIII 



KINETIC DISEASES Continued 



Graves' Disease 



As in shock the kinetic system is driven to the point 

 of exhaustion by one overwhelming, intense activation, 



- injury, emotion, strychnin, infection or anaphylaxis, 



- so in Graves' disease, as we have already stated, the 

 kinetic system is driven by a continuous activation, as 

 a result of which a pathologic interaction is established 

 between the brain and the thyroid, whereby the thresh- 

 old to all stimuli is kept continuously low. In shock 

 an immediate collapse of every function in the body 

 is exhibited with visible lesions only in the brain, the 

 adrenals and the liver. Graves' disease exhibits a 

 progressive alteration in every function, leading even- 

 tually to exhaustion, with visible lesions depending 

 upon the duration and severity of the disease in 

 every organ and tissue of the body ; not alone in the 

 brain, adrenals and liver (Fig. 49), but in the heart and 

 blood vessels, the muscles, the thyroid, the thymus, 

 the pancreas, the spleen, the lymphatics, the skin, 

 the skeletal muscles, the teeth, the hair and the bony 

 skeleton. Extreme and protracted exhaustion from 

 excessive exertion, excessive emotion or chronic infec- 

 tion causes similar lesions. (Fig. 50.) 



In other words, the principal phenomena of Graves' 



Q 225 



