672 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 
sex-determiner. The factors for the female characters are present in all indi- 
viduals, but only appear when ‘ ausgelést’ by a certain type of metabolism. In 
the normal female this metabolism is caused by an inherited factor; in the 
parasitised male the same metabolism is induced by the Sacculina, and so the 
female characters are caused to develop. 
3. Report on Calorimetric Ovservations on Man.—See Reports, p. 262. 
4. Radium Rays in the Treatment of Hypersecretion of the Thyroid 
Gland. By Dr. Dawson TURNER. 
Many favourable reports as to the action of the X-rays in disease due to 
hypersecretion of the thyroid gland have been published. The method of treat- 
ment has, in fact, become orthodox. Dr. George R. Murray, in his address in 
Medicine to the British Medical Association Meeting at Brighton, referred to 
the use of the X-rays as follows :— 
‘ The application of suitable doses of X-rays to the enlarged thyroid gland has 
in some of my cases proved to be of great value. The gland gradually diminishes 
in size, and the other symptoms subside. Atrophic changes in the secretory 
epithelium and both interstitial and extracapsular fibrosis appear to be induced 
by the action of the rays. In two of my cases in which X-ray treatment was 
not successful, the lobe of the gland was excised. Microscopical examination 
showed no fresh change in one, but a distinct increase in the interalveolar con- 
nective tissue of the other. These changes are slow in development, so that the 
full effect of the treatment is not obtained until some months have elapsed. In 
favourable cases some fifteen to twenty weekly doses of the rays have been suffi- 
cient to bring about great improvement or practical recovery, but in others only 
slight improvement has followed a similar course of treatment. It is worth 
while to persevere with X-ray treatment for so long as a year if slow but satis- 
factory progress is being made. We have, however, still much to learn as to 
the most appropriate doses and mode of application of this valuable method of 
treatment.’ 
In the author’s opinion, which is based not only theoretically upon the 
similarity of physical radiations but also practically upon an experience of four 
clinical cases, these laudatory remarks as to the action of X-rays could quite 
as justly be applied to the action of radium. But in addition radium has two 
iistinct clinical advantages over the X-rays: (1) a perfectly definite dose of it 
can be given and repeated as often as may be desired; (2) the radium can be 
applied without noise or excitement while the patient is in bed. That this is an 
important advantage in the treatment of this disease every physician will allow. 
Tt was for the latter reason that the author was led to replace the X-rays by 
radium rays in the treatment of such cases. The clinical results were dis- 
tinctly favourable, for the tachycardia, breathlessness, and exophthalmos were 
diminished. Direct histological evidence as to the action of radium on the 
thyroid gland in the author's cases is wanting, but there is plenty of other 
evidence available regarding its action on normal and pathological tissues. 
Thus in nevi the effect is to obliterate the small blood-vessels, and in malignant 
growths to induce a fibrosis. Professor Oscar Hertwig, of Berlin, in a paper 
contributed to the recent International Congress, said that radio-active bodies 
had a powerful influence on vital processes in plants and animals. Many 
experiments with radium on different tissues showed that while full-grown and 
differentiated cells and tissues were comparatively little affected, on the con- 
trary, embryonic cells, and others which in adults lingered in an undifferentiated 
state, especially generative cells, young nerve cells, leucocytes and tumour cells in 
a state of growth were especially sensitive. Blood and lymph of man, and the 
hematopoietic organs connected with them, were especially altered by radio- 
active bodies. Microscopically a great diminution in the white corpuscles was 
observed, caused on the one hand by wholesale disintegration, and on the other 
by diminution in replenishment. 
In some experiments on the nervous tissue by Sir Victor Horsley and 
Nae q 
