XII 



CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE USE OF 

 ANTERIOR PITUITARY AND THYROID SUB- 

 STANCES IN GOITRE AND NEURASTHENIA 



BY LEIGH F. WATSON, M.D., Chicago, 111.* 



The purpose of this paper is to report the results se- 

 cured with pluriglandular medication a combination 

 of anterior pituitary substance with thymus and thy- 

 roid in 75 cases of goitre and neurasthenia. 



EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES 



A disturbance in the endocrine balance is the gener- 

 ally-accepted cause of the symptoms of toxic goitre as 

 well as of neurasthenia. This hypothesis is supported 

 by the pathological studies of Louis Wilson, of the 

 Mayo Clinic, who has definitely proved the constant 

 association of exophthalmic goitre with primary hyper- 

 trophy and hyperplasia of the thyroid gland. His asso- 

 ciate, Kendall, has isolated from the thyroid an active 

 hormone, called "thyroxin," which, when injected into 

 a normal person, increases pulse-rate, vigor, metabo- 

 lism and nervous irritability. 



It is well known that physiological enlargement of 

 the thyroid a compensatory hypertrophy is most 

 frequent in women at puberty, during pregnancy, and 

 at the menopause. Kimball and Marine have demon- 

 strated that the feeding of sodium iodide to children 

 living in goitrous geographical belts, will lessen the f re- 



The writer of this essay received the first prize of $250.00. 



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