THE SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM 115 



that one or more of the parathyroids has been removed, 

 auto graft should be done at once in the parenchyma of 

 the thyroid, where it has a good chance to succeed. In the 

 majority of cases, however, it is only performed after 

 the appearance of the symptoms of tetany; auto graft is 

 then impossible and specimens must be obtained from other 

 individuals. As animal grafts do not succeed, they have 

 to be obtained from individuals who have died in an 

 accident or to remove one of the parathyroids in a patient 

 who is operated upon for goitre. Human graft has been 

 successful in the hands of Pool, Czerny, Kocher, etc. 



3. Symptomatic medical tetany disappears with their 

 cause and their treatment is related to the primary disease: 

 diphtheria antitoxin in diphtheria, tetanus antitoxin in 

 tetanus, lumbar puncture in meningeal affections, etc. 



4. Idiopathic tetany is treated by tepid baths, seda- 

 tives: bromides, chloral and calcium chloride. 



Parathyroid organo therapy is given under the form of 

 a fluid extract, given in doses of from 60 to 100 drops daily, 

 or the dried extract of ox or horse gland, given in doses of 

 from 5 to 20 milligrams daily. Marinesco, Vassale, 

 Zanfrognini, etc., have obtained good results with this in 

 infantile and gravid tetany. The failures are, however 

 more numerous than the successes. 



II. POSSIBLE PARATHYROID SYNDROMES. 



So called essential epilepsy has been suggested as being 

 of possible parathyroid etiology. Vassale, Parhon and 

 Golstein have obtained favorable results in epilepsy with 

 parathyroid medication. Claude, Schmiergeld and Schmorl 

 have found at autopsies of epileptics numerous appreciable 

 lesions of the parathyroids. Other glands, however, such 

 as, the thyroid for instance, are affected just as frequently 

 and the parathyroid theory of epilepsy is still to be proved. 



