86 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS 1920 



concluded from many text books. But though it is 

 difficult to give a mathematical way of measuring the 

 resistance of the body to a general invasion by the 

 Spirocheta, the time elapsing between the local and 

 general infections permits us to have an idea of this 

 resistance. 



That the thyroid plays a most important role in de- 

 fending the organism against an invasion may also be 

 proved by clinical symptoms. Nearly all authors de- 

 scribe as the first clinical symptoms of secondary 

 syphilis, skin eruptions ; but these may be accompanied 

 or even preceded by marked symptoms of a disturbed 

 function of the thyroid gland. This was first described 

 by Engel-Reimers (42), who found very frequently, 

 especially in syphilitic women, all symptoms of what he 

 called, "thyroidism." Mauriac (43), has even described 

 a "goitre aigu syphilitique secondaire." Delpy (44) , 

 agrees with Engel Reimers, though, according to him, 

 the eruption often is observed some time before the 

 symptoms of thyroidism. As I am writing neither an 

 essay on syphilis nor a study on dysthyroidism, I shall 

 not try to describe the symptoms of dysthyroidism, 

 which may be found in most modern books, for in- 

 stance, in the quoted book of Harrower (33), or in a 

 very exhaustive way in the book of Chvostek (45) . 



At last I come to my own small number of experi- 

 ments. I found that in four of the five patients who 

 took thyroid during the period between the moment of 

 infection and the beginning of serological changes was 

 much longer than in the control patients. In the first 

 case treated in this way, the Wassermann test became 

 positive 12 weeks after the infection. In three other 

 cases it took 10 weeks ; in the fifth case 7 weeks. Now, 

 I am quite aware that these few cases are not enough 

 to prove anything with certainty, but they give us a 

 right to continue our studies in this direction. Obvious- 

 ly, it is of the greatest importance to make the period 



