66 INTERNAL SECRETION 



active movement and the indolence of the movements are 

 symptoms of apathy. Trophic disturbances of the cuticle are 

 very frequent, and consist in falling of the hair, dryness of the 

 skin, and more or less extensive eczema. A myxcedematous 

 swelling of the subcutaneous cellular tissue, together with idiocy, 

 has been described by Horsley in apes, by Moussu in pigs, goats 

 and sheep, and by v. Wagner in cats. Personally I have never 

 seen, in any animal species, changes in the skin resembling those 

 of myxcedema. 



The changes in the blood are also remarkable. There is a 

 marked and continued decrease both in the number of red blood 

 corpuscles and in the amount of haemoglobin, accompanied by an 

 increasing leucocytosis, in which, more particularly, the number 

 of the mononuclear and eosinophile cells is augmented (Falta 

 and Berterelli). 



The typical and, in my experience, the invariable result of 

 suppression of the thyroid function in adult animals, is a pro- 

 gressive emaciation, which increases to pronounced cachexia and 

 culminates in death. These results are absent only in those, not 

 very rare, cases where accessory thyroids are present, the hyper- 

 function of which more or less completely replaces the suppressed 

 activity of the principal organ. Such accessory glands are of 

 somewhat frequent occurrence in dogs, and may be reckoned 

 upon in one case out of five ; in cats they are rarer. 



In cats, the emaciation begins after two or three days, before 

 there is any appreciable diminution of appetite. Later, the 

 appetite disappears entirely, the animals refusing all food but 

 milk, and after a few weeks become extremely emaciated in 

 consequence. In dogs, the loss of weight begins a good deal 

 later and progresses so slowly that the animals may live for 

 months, even one to two years, after removal of the thyroid. They 

 then present, however, a wretched picture of emaciation and trophic 

 cuticular derangement. Death in such cases most frequently 

 occurs from infective diseases accidentally acquired. 



Of the post-mortem findings, the most characteristic is the 

 enlargement of the hypophysis cerebri, which varies in degree 

 according to the length of life after operation. In animals which 

 have lived for some time after thyroidectomy, the hypophysis is 

 frequently two or three times as large as in control animals. 



The changes which take place in the pituitary after 

 thyroidectomy were first described by Rogowitsch in 1888. He 

 found an increase in the size of this organ in rabbits and dogs 

 as early as eight to fourteen days after operation. The histological 

 changes consisted in an increase in the amount of cell protoplasm 

 and an enlargement of the space between the nuclei ; the number of 

 vacuoles in the cell-body and the amount of colloid were both 

 increased. In addition, there was a marked dilatation of the 

 blood-vessels, and the organ contained a very large amount of 



