82 The Philippine Journal of Science i9u 



constitution and that a lymphocytosis of more than 40 per cent is 

 a contraindication for operation. Many investigators, especially 

 those of the French school, have gone so far as to attribute the 

 symptoms of Basedow's disease to the disordered function of the 

 thymus and to treat by thymectomy rather than thyroidectomy. 

 Thymus feeding in such cases has not been uniformly successful. 

 However, in view of the frequent fatalities following thyroidec- 

 tomy in exophthalmic goitre, advanced or extensive lymphatic 

 and thymus change should be excluded as far as possible by 

 differential blood count, roentgenization, and percussion of the 

 thymus region. Capelle(i3) collected statistics from the liter- 

 ature in regard to the association of status thymico-lymphaticus 

 and Basedow's disease, as follows: Of patients with Basedow's 

 disease dying of intercurrent infections, 44 per cent showed 

 hypertrophic thymus; of those dying purely from Basedow's 

 without associated disease this became 82 per cent, and of those 

 dying at or after operation 92 per cent, while if those were 

 excluded who died from haemorrhage it became 100 per cent. 

 He, therefore, concluded that the thymus enlargement was prac- 

 tically an indicator of the severity of the disease. 



But certainly not all cases of status thymico-lymphaticus are 

 associated with such extensive alterations in other ductless 

 glands, and the anatomical records of homicides and suicides 

 are particularly interesting. These have been studied by many 

 workers, from two of whom I shall quote. 



Bartel(i4) in 1910 studied 122 cases of suicides, and out of 

 52 cases found — 



Per cent. 



Status thymico-lymphaticus in 36 



Status lymphaticus in 26 



Partial status lymphaticus in 20 



and had incomplete protocols in 18 



Miloslavich(l5) studied, in 1912, 110 cases of suicides among 

 soldiers, and found 80 per cent with a lymphatic constitution as 

 follows : 



Per cent. 



Status thymico-lymphaticus 47 



Status lymphaticus 21 

 Status thymicus 8.5 



Partial status lymphaticus 3.5 



Negative as to status 20 



Bartel considered lymphatism as a certain and very pregnant 

 sign of a constitutional anomaly, and Miloslavich considered its 

 presence in suicides evidence of mental instability. 



