100 JOHN T. HALSEY 



ployed by Hanan and others, who have reported favorable results (for 

 literature, s> Bayon). 



Tetany. Although theoretically there are no grounds for assuming 

 that a deficiency of the thyroid hormone is in any degree responsible for 

 the development of tetany, thyroid feeding was rather extensively em- 

 ployed at one time and thought to be, at least occasionally, of some value 

 in the treatment of this condition. As the majority of the favorable re- 

 ports on this use of thyroid date back some time and are opposed by a 

 number of unfavorable reports, it would appear that it is at best of but 

 slight value (von Jauregg, Pineles (&)). 



Mental Diseases. Among the many claims made by certain writers 

 on organotherapy is one to the effect that thyroid therapy is of great value 

 in the treatment of insanity of various types. Although the view that 

 thyroid is in any sense a specific or even a frequently valuable remedy for 

 insanity is almost universally rejected by psychiatrists of to-day, there 

 was a time, not so remote, when the greatest enthusiasm prevailed in 

 regard to the use of thyroid in the treatment of various types of mental 

 disease, and when many psychiatrists were convinced that in it they had 

 found a remedy of great therapeutic value. MacPhail and Bruce were the 

 first to claim and to publish reports 13 indicating that a large proportion 

 of cases of insanity of different types were either curable or amenable to 

 great improvement by thyroid treatment. As a result of these reports 

 many other alienists were led to give this method a very extensive trial. 

 As is almost universally the case with a new method, while the early re- 

 ports indicated its great value, later ones showed a falling off in the per- 

 centage of cures and improvements claimed. 



In IttOO ]\Iabon and Babcock reported 50 cured, 94 improved and 364 

 unimproved in 50S cases collected by means of a circular letter, and 116 

 cured, 143 improved and 226 unimproved in 485 cases collected from the* 

 literature, and, in their own series of 61 cases, 12 cures and 16 improve- 

 ments. From their own experience and from the study of the results 

 reported in the 1,032 cases collected by them, these authors were convinced 

 that the administration of thyroid extract must have actually produced 

 changes in the, brain cells in order to bring about the marked improvement 

 noted in some of these cases, and they published a number of conclusions 

 which, in slightly abbreviated form, follow: 1. The dose varies from 5 to 

 2T> ( ! ) grains 3 times a day. 2. For best results, confinement to bed for 

 the whole period of treatment and for a week afterwards is essential, 

 i. The treatment should be continued for at least 30 days. 4. Failure of a 

 first treatment may lie followed by success in a second, third, or even later 

 repetition. 5. P.est results are obtained in acute mania, melancholia with 

 prolonged attacks, puerperal and climacteric insanities (which show a high 



11 P.ruce's own figures, in a scries of 87 cases, were 42.9 per cent cured and 21.9 

 JKT cent improved! 



