82 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS 1920 



results from this treatment. Spengler (28), has writ- 

 ten a little book, in which he states that he has actually 

 been able to cure dementia paralytica with mercury and 

 thyroid. His monograph, however, contains so much 

 nonsense, that the only thing that may be concluded 

 from it is that his two "cured" patients did not have 

 dementia paralytica at all. Nevertheless, one of 

 Spengler's is perfectly right: There exists certain 

 individuals with an increased sensitiveness to mercury ; 

 and many of these patients may take mercury without 

 any trouble if thyroid is given at the same time. Per- 

 rin and Jeandelize (29, 30), have proved that thyroid- 

 ectomized animals are intoxicated by much smaller 

 quantities of mercury than normal ones. Wagner von 

 Jauregg (31, 32) , warmly recommends the combination 

 of thyroid with other remedies in the treatment of 

 syphilis. In one of his cases mercury had no influence ; 

 iodine did not agree with the patient. Then thyroid 

 was tried. After some time iodine could be taken with- 

 out trouble and the patient recovered. Some time later 

 the patient died from an intercurrent disease ; the post- 

 mortem examination was made and a very atrophical 

 thyroid was found. Harrower (33), too, notes the 

 importance of organotherapy in syphilis. 



Though I have a great respect for clinical evidence, 

 I have tried to control the influence of thyroid therapy 

 in syphilis by laboratory methods the Wassermann 

 test. We may properly consider this test as a proof of 

 methods to estimate the intensity of the reaction ; but 

 their value is limited. To prove this I should be obliged 

 to write a monograph on the serodiagnosis of syphilis ; 

 so it must suffice for me to state that most authors are 

 of the same opinion. Therefore, it is, in experimental 

 work, better not to treat patients with a positive Was- 

 sermann test with thyroid and to study the effect of 

 treatment on this reaction, for changes in the intensity 

 of the reaction do not prove much. On the other hand, 



