PARATHYROID GLANDS 85 



cases also. Macallum* recommends the adminis- 

 tration of calcium salts, or milk, which is rich in 

 calcium salts. He has shown experimentally, and 

 Edmunds f has confirmed the statement, that these 

 salts will cure tetany. Thyroid and parathyroid 

 grafting have both been undertaken in man for 

 cretinism and tetany respectively, with the idea of 

 relieving the patient from the necessity of taking 

 drugs all his days. In a few cases success has 

 resulted, but unfortunately the graft becomes 

 absorbed as a general rule, and soon ceases to 

 function. 



In a case recently described by Brown, of 

 Melbourne, parathyroid feeding and calcium salts 

 both failed to relieve tetany in a patient who had 

 been treated by a too extensive thyroidectomy for 

 Graves' disease. The in-grafting of parathyroid 

 tissue from dogs and monkeys gave pronounced relief 

 for about twelve days, but she relapsed after each 

 operation. Human parathyroid was then grafted, 

 and the cure seemed to be permanent. I have seen 

 a case apparently cured by the grafting of human 

 parathyroid. 



We see also that exophthalmic goitre is due to 

 hypersecretion of the iodothyrin, as is proved by 

 the artificial imitation of the disease by excessive 

 thyroid feeding, by the excess of iodine present in 

 the colloid in Graves' disease, and by the character 

 of the histological changes. Thus we have reason 



* Journal of Experimental Med., New York, 1909, vol. xi, p. 118. 

 t Journal of Path, and Bad., 1910, p. 288. 



