516 SUTHEKLAND SIMPSON 



was inclined to attribute many of the symptoms that follow interference 

 with these glands, in the hands of other experimenters, to damage done to 

 the nerves of this region. 



Edmunds (1902), on the other hand, using dogs and monkeys, came to 

 the opposite conclusion. He made complete and partial extirpations of 

 the thyroid and parathyroids and decided that the acute symptoms are 

 caused by the loss of the latter. He states that, if one thyroid lobe and two- 

 thirds or more of the other be removed, the animal will live, provided 

 one parathyroid be included in the part of the thyroid left behind ; other- 

 wise it will die. He also noted that the palpebral fissure becomes nar- 

 rowed after parathyroidectomy. Several of his animals survived the 

 complete operation, and, as the existence of accessory parathyroids was 

 not suspected at that time, he was at a loss to account for. this. He failed 

 to find any change in the parathyroid glands of the rabbit left behind at 

 the operation. 



Kishi (1004) obtained varying results with different animals, Of 

 twenty-four dogs, only seventeen died within periods ranging from four 

 to fifty-one days after operation, most of them in the first two weeks; and 

 of twelve cats, all were dead within a fortnight except one, in which he 

 had left behind a single parathyroid; that animal showed no symptoms 

 whatever. In monkeys he had only one death out of six in which the 

 operation was done, while in rabbits there were three out of three. In the 

 case of two goats, one died in thirteen days and the other in six months. 

 No statement is made with regard to the age of the goats, but, as the first 

 had a body weight of 7.5 kgm. and the second of 13.16 kgm., age probably 

 had some influence. The number of dogs which survived the complete 

 operation in Kishi's series, while 100 per cent of the rabbits succumbed, is 

 remarkable. 



Ixouxeau (1897) believed that the parathyroids were very important 

 organs. lie removed these in twenty-one rabbits, leaving the thyroids be- 

 hind, and all but three died of acute symptoms, in every respect the same 

 as those that followed complete thyroparathyroidectomy. 



Monssn ((!} (1897), after experimenting upon cats, rabbits, and dogs, 

 came to the conclusion that the thyroid and parathyroids have distinct and 

 separate functions. The loss of the thyroid is followed by chronic disturb- 

 ances of metabolism leading to myxedema and cachexia, while absence of 

 the parathyroids produces acute symptoms and early death. Of fifty-five 

 dno-s, on which he performed the complete operation, thirty-three died early 

 <>t acute symptoms, and in the case of the others, their survival in many in- 

 stances was explained by the finding of one or more parathyroids, post 

 mortem, which had inadvertently been left behind, 



' 'liristiani (a) ( IS!):}), after removing both thyroids and parathyroids 

 in the rut, reported that most of the animals so treated died in tetany 

 shortly after the operation. 



