976 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 130. 



and fifty-five.* Many circumstances, how- 

 ever, combine to modify the content of 

 iodine in the thyroids, especially the 

 proximity to the sea-shore with the greater 

 abundance of sea food, etc., and this fact, 

 coupled with the well-known circumstance 

 that in the thyroids of some children iodine 

 is wholly wanting (Baumann), and this 

 without any apparent effect upon the 

 activity of the gland, renders one somewhat 

 skeptical as to the real virtue of the iodine. 

 Blum,t however, states that artificial com- 

 pounds of iodine, with various forms of 

 proteid matter, exert a beneficial influence 

 upon parenchymatous goitre as well as upon 

 the tetanus and myxoedema induced in dogs 

 by thyroidectomy. The iodine in iodothy- 

 rin is certainly not active as iodine ; the 

 amount is too small, and it may, perhaps, 

 be questioned if the amount of iodine in the 

 thyroid gland can be taken as a measure of 

 the amount of active substance present. In 

 this connection it may be mentioned that 

 animals with the thyroids removed have no 

 power of retaining the iodothyrin admin- 

 istered by mouth or subcutaneously, the 

 iodine compound appearing in the urine 

 either unaltered or in some modified form 

 (organic). J 



To summarize, the thyroid gland manu- 

 factures one specific substance of marked 

 physiological power — the so-called colloid 

 of Hutchinson — a body which, though con- 

 taining phosphorus, is not anucleo-proteid; 

 neither is it allied to mucin. It is peculiar 

 in that it contains iodine. This body when 

 acted upon by gastric juice or by boiling 

 acids is split into a proteid and a non-pro- 



*See Baumann : Ueber das Thyrojodin. Miinch- 

 ener med. Wochensohr., 1896, No. 14. 



t Ueber Halogeneiweissderivate und ihr physi- 

 ologisches Verhalten. Miinchener med. "Wochenschr. , 

 49, 1099. 



X Baumann und Goldmann, Loc. oit. See also H. 

 und M. Frenkel. Jod im Harn nach Einnahme von 

 Thyreodintabletten. Berliner klin. Wochensolir. , 

 sxxiii, 37, p. 827. 



teid part, the latter containing all of the 

 phosphorus and the larger proportion of the 

 iodine of the original colloid. According 

 to Hutchinson both parts of the colloid are 

 physiologically active, but the non-proteid 

 part, the iodothyrin of Baumann, is un- 

 questionably far more active than the pro- 

 teid part of the original molecule. This 

 substance is apparently the physiological 

 equivalent of tho thyroid gland. Lastly, 

 our history would be incomplete without 

 some reference to the theories of ITotkin.* 

 This reference, however, may be a brief 

 one, since the theories though ingenious 

 are now known to rest upon a false founda- 

 tion and have no present value. 



Concerning the other internal secretions of 

 the body I have little to say, partly owing 

 to lack of time and partly because there is 

 very little definite chemico-physiological 

 knowledge at our disposal. Our knowledge 

 has not as yet advanced sufficiently to ad- 

 mit of making dogmatic statements regard- 

 ing the exact chemical nature of the active 

 principles present in the adrenals, testacies, 

 ovaries, pancreas, pituitary body, etc., or 

 of the exact action of extracts of these 

 glands upon the metabolic phenomena of 

 the body. Allow me to say, however, in 

 reference to the adrenals that there is some 

 evidence of the existence of two distinct 

 physiologically active substances, one in- 

 soluble in 90 per cent, alcohol, possibly the 

 sphygmogenin of Frankel, which increases 

 blood-pressure while the other, which is 

 readily soluble in alcohol, causes paralysis 

 of the heart and muscles and death by 

 sufibcation.f In this connection it will be 



* Zur Schilddriisen-Physiologie. Virchows Archiv, 

 Band 144. Supplementheft, p. 224. This paper con- 

 tains a very full bibliography. Notkin's theories are 

 well combated by Hutchinson, Journal of Physiol., 

 Vol. 20, p. 490. 



tSee S. Frankel: Beitriige zur Physiologie und 

 physiologisohen Chemie der Nebenniere. Centralbl. 

 f. Physiol. Band 10, p. 486. Du Bois; Note pr^limi- 



