66 ENDOCRINE THERAPEUTICS 



many years of endocrine experience in myself and 

 in others, I maintain that thyroid should be our 

 main weapon. For years iodide of potash has 

 been used, occasionally with success, more often 

 with complete failure. The fundamental idea 

 is right, for by giving the iodides you increase 

 thyroid action and excretion of thyroxin, but 

 only if you have a fairly healthy gland to deal 

 with. In the majority of cases that we see, the 

 thyroid has not only struck work but is incapable 

 of resuming it. 



These are the cases when iodide fails. Thyroid 

 feeding, on the other hand, supplies the deficiency 

 most effectually, and causes none of the disgust 

 and digestive upset that the salt produces. It 

 also, I think, helps a failing gland in some measure 

 to resume work, which the iodide certainly does 

 not do. (If for any reason the thyroid cannot 

 be given, I think collosol iodine is better in every 

 way than the salts.) But what object can there 

 be in taking such an indirect, devious path to our 

 goal, when there is a direct, natural one ? The 

 legend of iodide in sclerosis is one of those mis- 

 chievous traditions that persist, and are most 

 difficult to kill, injurious to mankind, and an 

 obstacle to successful therapeutics. 



The increased output of calcium probably has 



