160 GLANDS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 



the fine tremor, moist skin, tachycardia (rapid 

 tion of the heart), prominent thyroid, and me 

 irritability are all present. The brisk reactio] 

 any emotional excitement, with exaggeration 

 those features, shows that the mental elemen 

 not negligible. Furthermore, any one who has 

 any lengthy experience of this class of sold 

 patient will agree that his mental outlook is mi 

 edly similar to that of the civilian patient with 

 ophthalmic goiter." 



In hypothyroidism, as in the cretinous chuu, 

 and in the adult suffering from myxedema, we go 

 from the extreme of rapidity in action and thought 

 (hyperthyroidism) to complete sluggishness and 

 mental apathy. The child coordinates poorly; it 

 learns to talk late in years sometimes it never 

 passes beyond the stage of inarticulate sounds; it 

 learns to sit and to walk late. The adult loses all 

 reaction to strong stimuli and resembles the hiber- 

 nating animal. 



Professor Falta states that the English Myxe- 

 dema Commission "found the apathy character- 

 istic of myxedema to be absent in three of 109 

 cases. This may develop relatively early, and in 

 the light cases may consist in a sluggishness of 

 movement, in a retardation of the psychic func- 

 tions, in an inability to form rapid conclusions, 

 and in a slowing and monotony of speech. Mag- 

 nus-Levy, the German physiologist, claims that 



