THE THYROID GLAND IN MEDICINE. 



487 



owing to their stunted bodies and vacant minds, are even more 

 astonishing than those described for myxoedema ; for in cretins, 

 not only do the oedema and other general symptoms disappear, 

 but the dwarf begins to grow, and the idiot to show signs of 

 intelligence. One patient who, at the beginning of treatment, 

 was sixteen and a half years old and only thirty-three and a half 

 inches in height, and in whom no growth had occurred in four- 

 teen years, grew four and three quarters inches in six months ; 



FIG. 3. SPORADIC CRETINISM. 

 treatment. 



Before 



FIG. 4. Same patient after treatment. 



another, sixteen and a half years old and twenty -nine and a half 

 inches tall at the beginning of treatment, increased six and a half 

 inches in height in six months. Under treatment the teeth begin 

 to grow, and the facial expression and the whole appearance of 

 the patient are radically changed. The patients soon become 

 more intelligent and appreciative of their surroundings, and 

 many begin to talk and to understand what is said to them. 

 How striking may be the improvement in the general appearance 

 is shown by Figs. 3 and 4, which are reproductions of photo- 

 graphs of a little patient treated by Dr. J. C. Carson, superintend- 

 ent of the Syracuse Institution for Feeble-minded Children. 



That the results will be permanent, and that these idiotic chil- 

 dren will become, under the influence of the thyroid treatment, 

 intelligent men and women, it is as yet impossible to say. 



