592 CHEMICAL /'ATHOLOGY OF THE DUCTLESS GLAyDS 



in fair condition for several years without a thj-roid,^^ Administra- 

 tion of meat to thyroidcetomized lierbivora or omnivora causes a great 

 increase in the syinptoms, while tliyroideetomized carnivora do much 

 better if kept without meat. Tims, Hluui ^- found that thj-roidecto- 

 mized dogs, which were doing well on a milk diet, developed symptoms 

 of athyreosis immediately they were given meat. This fact has been 

 interpreted as indicating that toxic materials are formed from meat 

 in tiie intestinal tract, which under -normal conditions are neutralized 

 by the thyroid. On the other hand, one may well imagine that the so- 

 called autointoxication in athyreosis is not from intestinal putrefac- 

 tion, but is due to the products of incomplete metabolism of proteins 

 within the tissues, which are destroyed when protein metabolism is 

 normal, but not when the metabolism-favoring influence of the thyroid 

 is wanting. It should also be added that the presence of specific 

 poisonous substances in the blood or urine of thyroidcetomized animals 

 has not been conclusively established.^"' 



(4) Reid Hunt ^* found that mice fed thyroid preparations have a 

 greatly increased resistance to poisoning by aceto-nitrile ; however, this 

 is not necessarily nor even probably a direct detoxication, but more 

 likely it results from alterations in metabolism. Rats and guinea 

 pigs behave just the opposite, showing a decreased resistance to aceto- 

 nitrile after being fed thyroid, and according to some authors morphine 

 is more toxic for such animals. ^"^^ 



"Whether the thyroid exercises its detoxicating effect, assuming that 

 it has one, by a direct neutralizing action of its secretion upon the 

 toxic substances in the blood or in diverse tissues, or indirectly by 

 stimulation of the function of other tissues which perform the de- 

 toxication. or in part locally within the gland itself, is an unsettled 

 problem. In relation to the last-named hypothesis is the extreme vas- 

 cularity of the thyroid, which, according to Burton-Opitz ^" has passed 

 through it much more blood in proportion to its weight than any 

 other gland. Against the idea of a local detoxication is the fact that 

 after extir]iation of the thyroid all abnormal conditions may be pre- 

 vented l)y i)r()pcr administration of thyroid substance. 



Biedl summarizes his views as to the function of the thyi'oid, in 



11 I'arl of tlicse results may be due to tlie faet tliat in some lierbivora the 

 parathyroids are so far separated from the thyroid that they are not ordinarily 

 removed in thyroidectomy, whereas in many carnivora eom]ilete removal of 

 paratiiyroids witli tlie thyroids is more likely to be aeeom])lished. 



12 Virchow's Arch.. IHOO (1(12), .'575. 



i-i Heinedi ( Lo Sperinientale, 1!)()2; abst. in Cent. f. Path., litO.S (14), fi!)5) 

 claims tliat tetanus toxin and other l)acterial |)oisons, when injected into the 

 thyroid fjland, are harmless, which he attrii)utes to a neutralization by the 

 colloid. This observation is discredited bv the work of Basinger, Jour. Infect. 

 Dis., 1017 (20), 1.31. 



14 Jour. Amer. ^led. Assoc, 1!H)7 (4!M, 240; llyuicnic Lul). IbiU., 1!>{)!I, No. 47; 

 Jour. Pharmacol., 1910 (2), 15. 



ir-See Olds, Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1010 (2(1), .Sr)4. 



I'UJuarl. Jour. Phvsiol.. 101(> (.'{). 207. 



