368 



Mr. W. Edmunds. 



they are not immediately susceptible to chemical change. What is the 

 criterion of life 1 There is none. It seems to me then that the question 

 I have propounded does not admit of any positive answer in the present 

 state of our knowledge. 



A problem, perhaps somewhat scholastic, which once vexed the souls 

 of biologists was : — Whether life was the cause of organisation or 

 organisation of life. What is to be our answer if our starting point is 

 no more than a possible " explosive" 1 



" Effects of Thyroid Feeding on Monkeys." By Walter Edmunds. 

 Communicated by Professor J. Kose Bradford, F.E.S. 

 Eeeeived September 28, 1899. 



(From the Laboratory of the Brown Institution.) 



The experiments were made altogether on nine monkeys ; from 

 them, however, it would be safer to exclude three : two because patho- 

 logical conditions were found in their lungs after death, and one 

 because the animal died in so short a time (seven days) after the com- 

 mencement of the treatment. 



There remain then six experiments for consideration. 



The thyroid preparations administered were either a powder made 

 according to the directions of Mr. Edmund White, or thyrocolloid 

 prepared by the method of Dr. Hutchison. 



The doses given were large and corresponded to from one-half to 

 three sheep's thyroids (both lobes) to a monkey daily. 



Marked effects were produced by this treatment : the eyes became 

 abnormally prominent ; the monkeys lost flesh, became weak, and 

 eventually died. 



The symptoms produced may be tabulated as follows : (1) Proptosis, 

 (2) dilatation of pupils, (3) widening of palpebral fissures, (4) erection 

 of hairs on head, (5) hair falling out in patches from various parts of 

 the body, (6) paralysis of one or more limbs, (7) emaciation and mus- 

 cular weakness, (8) death from asthenia. 



With respect to these symptoms, proptosis, dilatation of pupil, 

 widening of the palpebral fissure and erection of the hairs on the head 

 are effects which are produced by the stimulation of the cervical sym- 

 pathetic. 



As the chief object of these experiments was to determine as to 

 exophthalmos, sketches were made of the monkeys before commencing 

 treatment and also after ; eye changes occurred in all the six monkeys, 

 and of four of them sketches exist showing these changes ; in two it 

 was not practicable to obtain the second sketches, but there was no 

 doubt about the eye changes in these also, 



