484 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pathologists who, in their examination of all the organs of per- 

 sons dead with myxcedema, found that there existed constant 

 disease in the thyroid, so that it became established beyond 

 doubt that these symptoms, which were so much like those of 

 Bright's disease, were in reality due, not to the ordinary causes 

 of Bright's disease, but to a chronic inflammation of the thyroid 

 gland a process which resulted in the diminution or loss of the 

 function of the gland, and a consequent deprivation of the secre- 

 tion which it was intended to supply. 



The symptoms which ensued after extirpation of the thyroid 

 gland, whether in man or in the lower animals, received the name 

 of cacliexia thyreopriva, or operative myxoedema ; when the con- 

 dition occurred independently of such operations i. e., from 

 primary disease in the gland it was called myxoedema; but 

 although the pathology of myxoedematous conditions thus be- 

 came established, it was a long time before it became known how 

 they could be cured ; and again it was due to the ingenuity and 

 observation of physiologists and surgeons that it eventually be- 

 came possible for the physician to apply a form of treatment 

 which has proved curative for myxcedematous conditions of 

 whatever origin. 



It occurred to physiologists that if another thyroid could be 

 made to grow beneath the skin of an animal whose own gland 

 had been removed, the new thyroid might assume the functions 

 of the one which was gone; and surgeons conceived the same 

 idea for patients from whom the thyroid had been removed at 

 operation. This was accordingly tried : physiologists grafted 

 sheep's glands in monkeys whose own thyroid they had re- 

 moved experimentally ; and surgeons put sheep's glands beneath 

 the skin of patients who had been operated upon on account of 

 thyroid disease. Although these procedures were only partially 

 successful, they were the beginnings which led to the ultimate 

 establishment of the thyroid treatment. The results of these 

 graftings were beneficial for a time, but as the transplanted 

 thyroid could not be made to accommodate itself to its new 

 home, the effects soon wore away and the myxcedematous symp- 

 toms returned. The temporary benefit, however, was so pro- 

 nounced that it was evident that the disease had in some way been 

 influenced by the grafted thyroid. Since the gland at the time 

 of its transplantation was full of its normal secretion, but could 

 not be made to secrete further after grafting, it was inferred that 

 the beneficial influence was solely due to the thyroid juice which 

 the grafted gland contained. So it became evident that the suc- 

 cessful treatment of myxoedematous conditions required an un- 

 interrupted supply of thyroid secretion. It was not until 1891 

 that Dr. G. R. Murray drew this conclusion, and presented at a 



