206 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS 1920 



all animals, and should be used wherever iodine is indi- 

 cated. In long-standing cases of exophthalmic goitre, 

 which have passed over into the myxedematus state, 

 thyroid extract is the treatment par excellence. In 

 keratitis, and iritis, with cloudy cornea and fluid, I have 

 known it to work in a manner that was almost miracu- 

 lous. The late Samuel D. Risley, famous opththalmolo- 

 gist, of Philadelphia, told me that in chronic inflamma- 

 tory conditions of the eye, accompanied by opacities 

 and indurations, he had frequently found thyroid medi- 

 cation of great value. Do not forget its use in fractures 

 that are slow to unite, or of fecal fistulas that have 

 failed to heal. 



I have observed that sometimes when thyroid medi- 

 cation had failed, another package, put out by the same 

 laboratory perhaps, would prove effective. It was very 

 puzzling to me until I learned that Kendall, of the Mayo 

 Research Laboratory, has found that the iodine content 

 of the thyroid gland of the dog, the hog, the sheep, and 

 the cow, was four or five hundred per cent greater in 

 the summer months than in the colder season of the 

 year. 



In undersized children, or wherever else thymus or 

 adrenal medication is indicated, in addition to such 

 medication, instruct your patient to eat sweetbreads 

 two or three times per week ; for none of the endocrine 

 glands play a part of selfish isolation, hence they act 

 best when combined. 



The sexual glands inhibit the thymus, as well as the 

 pituitary. The pituitary in turn inhibits the thyroid 

 and stimulates the gonads, while the thyroid inhibits 

 the adrenals. This tangled skein of cause and effect, 

 of influence and counterinfluence, of stimulation and 

 inhibition, holds within its mesh the great future of 

 medicine. And unto him to whom there is given an 

 understanding of the laws of internal secretion, there 

 shall be added all things else. 



