Patathyroids 



205 



In the present work the changes in certain constituents of the 

 blood have been studied following partial and complete parathy- 

 roidectomy in dogs, care being taken to leave enough thyroid tis- 

 sue to prevent cachexia. Partial extirpation was done in 7 dogs, 

 complete removal in 10 dogs. 



/. Partial Parathyroidectomy. Three glands were removed. 

 In no case did the animals show any symptoms of tetany, 

 and apart from a little depression and loss of appetite the first 

 few days showed no symptoms at all. In 6 of these dogs the 

 fourth gland was removed later. 



The blood sugar was absolutely unchanged. The alkali re- 

 serve usually was lowered the first few days after the operation; 

 corresponding to this lowered alkali reserve there was an in- 

 crease of acid elimination. The serum calcium decreased from 

 a normal value of 10.0 mg. to a minimum of 7 mg. per 100 c.c. 



In 2 of the 7 dogs there was no decrease in calcium; microscopic 

 examination showed that only two parathyroids were taken out ; 

 in one of these dogs the third parathyroid was removed some 

 time afterwards and the calcium dropped down to about 8 mg. 

 Within two weeks the calcium was restored again to the nor- 

 mal. As a control a normal dog was given the same anesthetics 

 used in the operations (chloroform and ether, equal parts); the 

 alkali reserve dropped considerably, but the calcium remained un- 

 changed. Another normal dog was given large doses of N/10 

 hydrochloric acid for three weeks; there was a heavy drop of 

 the alkali reserve, but the calcium was unchanged. The calcium 

 decrease found in partial parathyroidectomized dogs therefore 

 cannot be due to anesthetics or acidosis. 



77. Complete Parathyroidectomy. In 10 dogs complete para- 

 thyroidectomy was performed; in 6 of these partial parathyroid- 

 ectomy was done previously, while in 4 all the parathyroids were 

 removed at once. All of these 10 dogs developed acute tetany. 

 Five of them died untreated within 3% days; 1 died 22 days 

 after; the condition was complicated by extensive necrosis of 3 

 legs following unsuccessful intravenous injections of calcium 

 chloride. Four of these dogs were preserved by treatment and 

 passed into a state of latent tetany. 



A. Acute Tetany. 



1. Blood analysis during development of the symptoms in 

 this acute stage showed : Blood sugar unchanged ; there was no 



