

406 GEORGE H. HOXIE 



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fluid in the pericardium. The right heart showed some dilatation and the 

 musculature was flabby, but there was no hypertrophy. All valves were 

 normal except the aortic and they showed some thickening of no impor- 

 tance. The aorta was strikingly small and measured 6 cm. in circumfer- 

 ence. There were several atheromatous patches in the arch, and one of 

 them encircled the right coronary. But the coronary was patent through- 

 out its length and showed no evidence of sclerosis ; nor was there any sign 

 of an embolus. The thymus was large, thickened, and extended down over 

 the right auricle. On cross section it was congested and 'meaty.' Its 

 dimensions were: length 7 cm., width 4.8 cm., with an average thickness 

 of 1 to 1.2 cm. . . . The spleen was twice its normal size, dark red and 

 bloody on section, with prominent follicles. ... I cut down on the bra- 

 chials, femorals and carotids. None of them was more than two-thirds 

 normal size, the right brachial being the smallest. And none of them was 

 sclerosed." 



As a further indication of the effect of status lymphaticus in mili- 

 tary life, we have the report of Davis who examined two groups of 

 soldiers as to the prevalence of the stigmata of status lymphaticus. Among 

 114 psychoneurotics men who had been returned from France he found 

 the status type in 23.68 per cent. Among 119 cases of battle casualties 

 men who nevertheless had not developed psychoneuroses he found the 

 status in 12.60 per cent. This report would tend to emphasize the lack 

 of stamina among the victims of the status, both in the nervous and mental 

 realms, as well as in the purely physical. It would also emphasize the 

 need of watching out for this condition whenever we examine men for 

 military duty, or for other arduous employment. 



Etiologic Considerations. It is in explanation of the sudden deaths of 

 these folk that the students of the thymus have been most at variance. To 

 say that the hyperplasia of the thymus is compensatory simply dodges the 

 issue. We do not know what it is that is lacking. 



Tracy speaks of a hormone secreted by the thymus. Noel Paton be- 

 lieves that the condition is one of ondocrin imbalance, in which disas- 

 trous results are precipitated by apparently trivial traumata. McNeil 

 holds to the theory of anaphylaxis. Wooley seems to consider the thymus 

 responsible for the untoward results of status lymphaticus but just what 

 role is played by the thymus in this connection is still not clear. Thus, 

 Sajous seems to consider it connected with the phosphorus metabolism. 

 Others believe it concerned with the nucleoprotcids, especially, with those 

 found in the lymphocytic nuclei. 



The most adequate current statement of the case of the adherents of 

 the sensitization theory, is that of Symmers : 



"Sudden death in subjects of status lymphaticus has often been 

 ascribed to pressure of the enlarged thymus upon the trachea. At Belle- 



