Effect of Animal Extracts Upon Thyroid Gland. 179 



animals, attention was called to the lesion by the presence of pale 

 opaque focal area in the psoas mucsle. Microscopical examination 

 of these areas showed that the muscle fibers were irregular in 

 shape, had lost their nuclei and striation and presented the typical 

 hyaline appearance of Zenker's degeneration as it occurs in man. 

 In these animals the adjacent tissue showed no hemorrhage, 

 exudate or evidence of connective tissue reaction. The animals 

 died after 18 and 35 days respectively, the first having received 

 8 injections and the second 7 injections of venom in doses varying 

 from 0.5 to 2 milligrams. 



A third rabbit died on the 38th day after the first injection, 

 having received nine injections, the last on the 23d day. At 

 autopsy mottled hemorrhages were seen in the rectus and psoas 

 muscles and about these hemorrhages, the peculiar opaque, whitish 

 appearance of hyaline degeneration. Upon microscopical ex- 

 amination, the picture was identical with that of true Zenker's 

 degeneration. Irregular, swollen, vacuolated and varicose, hyaline 

 fibers, more or less fractured, without nuclei and invaded by 

 leucocytes occupied large irregular areas. In the midst of these 

 fibers were foci of hemorrhage and throughout an infiltration of 

 polymorphonuclear leucocytes, while about the necrotic areas 

 were wide bands of granulation tissue which sent prolongations 

 between the bundles of muscle fibers. In such areas the surviving 

 fibers frequently showed multiple nuclei. 



Whether or not these lesions have fundamentally a common 

 relation with those caused by anaphylactic poisons is of course a 

 matter of doubt. It seems wise, however, to add, in support of 

 Beneke's experience with the venom of Crotalus terrificus, these 

 observations on the effect of the venom of Crotalus adamanteus. 



113 (809) 



Note on the effect of animal extracts upon the volume of the 

 thyroid gland. 



By Isaac Ott, M.D., and John C. Scott, M.D. 



The volume of the thyroid was registered by an oncometer and 

 a modified piston recorder. The arterial tension was also noted. 

 The animals used were dogs, etherized and with a small dose of 



