EVERY-DAY ENDOCRINOLOGY 41 



gland was administered. The patient is now feeling 

 much stronger and his blood pressure has risen to 110 

 systolic and 70 diastolic. He is still taking treatment 

 under my observation. 



CASE No. 2. A young girl of 18, complaining of at- 

 tacks of nervous spells, consisting in uncontrollable 

 movements of the upper and lower extremities, and 

 other parts of her body, accompanied at times by laugh- 

 ing, but most of the time by crying with tears. During 

 the attack, the patient experiences a sharp pain in the 

 epigastrium and a sensation of dizziness. No foaming 

 at mouth or involuntary discharge of feces or urine 

 ever occurred during an attack. This trouble began 

 about one year ago, and was accompanied by a change 

 in her menstrual function. Her menses, previously 

 normal, now occur every two or three months, and are 

 very painful. The nervous spells, as the patient calls 

 those attacks, occur from one to several times a day, 

 and may be brought on by a sudden noise, or by any- 

 thing hot or cold coming in contact with her body. 

 Very often the attacks take place without any apparent 

 cause. I have witnessed these attacks in my office while 

 examining her for, at one time, putting the stethoscope 

 to her chest was sufficient to bring on an attack exactly 

 as the patient described it to me. 



Considering the simultaneous occurrence of irregular 

 painful menstruation and the above-described attacks 

 of nervous spells as one abnormal phenomenon, due, 

 possibly, to an insufficiency of the ovarian or the thy- 

 roid secretion, or, perhaps, both the patient was put 

 on a combination of these principles with gratifying 

 results. The attacks occur now at far less frequent 

 intervals, and the patient is able, at times, to control 

 herself when she feels the oncome of an attack, a thing 

 which she could not do before. She is still under ob- 

 servation. 



CASE No. 3. A woman, aged 32, consulted me for 

 obesity. She is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 225 

 pounds. She felt very uncomfortable with such an 

 excessive amount of tissue about her body. She had 

 been several times on a diet reduced in carbohydrates 

 and fat, but no reduction in her body weight resulted. 

 Exercise would only tire her out. Her urine examina- 



