I04 Surgical Diseases and Surgery of the Dog 



however, ceased when the swelling subsided. Cadeac says laryngeal 

 hemiplegia may result from pressure on the recurrent laryngeal 

 nerve. Complete suppression of thyroid function is followed by 

 cretinism and myxedema, conditions characterized by physical de- 

 generacy and deformity and grave nerve disturbances. There 

 occur an increase in the general connective tissue with a mucoid 

 conversion of the ground substance, and marked idiocy. Rougieux 

 has recorded cases of cretinism, and Raynard has seen the con- 

 genital form accompanied by imperfect development of the body and 

 legs, thickened head, shortened neck, and feeble mental power. 

 Experimental myxedema and cretinism have been produced by 

 Moussu by complete extirpation of the gland, leaving the glandules 

 intact. 



Struma can be comparatively easily diagnosed. Generally the 

 enlargement is bilateral, but not necessarily of uniform development. 



This bilateral character is of assistance in making a differential 

 diagnosis from mucous cysts, abscesses, and hematomata. Further- 

 more, its mobility, sharp demarcation, and freedom from sensitive- 

 ness aid in the diagnosis. It can hardly be confounded with any 

 other lesion unless it be lymphosarcoma involving the neighboring 

 lymphatics, but in the latter disease other lymphatics are usually 

 found to be involved. The enlargement may be so deeply embedded 

 that its presence is hardly suspected, and in other cases may be so 

 extensive as to occupy the entire distance between the trachea and 

 sternum. Leisering saw such a growth, it being a carcinoma, with 

 secondary growths in the walls of the internal jugular. 



Malignant struma is distingfuished from other forms by its tu- 

 berculate character and by the cachexia which accompanies it. 



The hemorrhagic form involving extravasation of blood into 

 the connective tissue of the neck is sometimes a little difficult to 

 diagnose. It is accompanied by diffuse swelling of the neck with 

 local pain and heat, which may or may not terminate in suppuration. 



The accessory bodies may also become hypertrophied, when 

 they receive the name .of "aberrant struma." They are often seen 

 in animals possessed of congenital struma. WoeWer and Wagner 

 observed one instance of a veritable enlargement of a nodule of true 

 thyroid tissue in an animal whose lobes only slightly exceeded the 

 normal in size. The tumor was as large as a hazel-nut, and hung 

 from the aorta by a pedicle. 



