88 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS 1920 



We have been speaking heretofore of the anatomical 

 changes caused by typhoid bacilli. We shall try now 

 to discuss the influence of thyroid preparations upon 

 the serological processes that take place in the body. 

 Here we may expect to find out additional facts, as the 

 case of syphilis. Syphilis, at first, is a local infection 

 which later becomes general. Typhoid fever, on the 

 other hand, is a general infection, as is proved by the 

 findings of bacilli in the blood during the first few 

 days, which later becomes localized. There exist even 

 (extremely rare) cases of sepsis by typhoid bacilli 

 without localization (Bonn, 54). The organism de- 

 fends itself through the production of agglutinins, and 

 these may be detected in the blood from the second 

 week of the diseases. There is not much literature 

 about the influence of thyroid administration on the 

 formation of agglutinins. Fjeldstead (18), immunized 

 rabbits against typhoid bacilli and did not find any 

 difference between normal animals and animals after 

 extirpation of the thyroid. Borchardt (55) , found that 

 most endocrine organs (pituitary, adrenals, thyroid) 

 raise the agglutinin titer in a very marked way. 



My own experiments give results similar to Bor- 

 chardt. The first experiment was performed on two 

 guinea pigs (with two others serving as a control). 

 The first guinea pig was injected with a small quantity 

 of living typhoid bacilli (10 millions) . The strain was 

 very pathogenic, as the animal died in 18 hours (at post 

 mortem I found all the symptoms of an acute sepsis). 

 The control animal received the same dose of bacilli 

 and also 10 milligrams of an extract of thyroid. This 

 last one is still alive and never did develop any symptom 

 of disease. 



Another experiment had the same result. One 

 guinea pig got 5,000,000 typhoid bacilli ; the other the 

 same quantity and 10 milligrams of thyroid extract. 

 This strain did not seem to be so virulent. The first 



