296 



MYXCEDEMA 



these organs — we have not so much as an idea what 

 use and importance they may possess — because 

 experiments have told us nothing about them; and 

 anatomy, left to itself, is absolutely silent on the 

 subject." 



Therefore, in 1882-83, things stood at this 

 point — that the removal of a diseased thyroid 

 gland had been followed, in some cases, by a train 

 of symptoms such as Sir William Gull had recorded 

 in 1873. Would the same symptoms follow removal 

 of the healthy gland ? The answer was given by 

 Sir V. Horsley's experiments, begun in 1884. He 

 was able, by removal of the gland, to produce in 

 monkeys a chronic myxcedema, a cretinoid state, 

 the facsimile of the disease in man : the same 

 symptoms, course, tissue-changes, the same physical 

 and mental hebetude, the same alterations of the 

 excretions, the temperature, and the voice. It was 

 now past doubt that myxcedema was due to want 

 of thyroid-tissue, and to that alone ; and that 

 " cachexia strumipriva " was due to the loss, by 

 operation, of such remnants of the gland as had 

 not been rendered useless by disease. 



The advance had still to be made from patho- 

 logy to treatment. Here, so far as England is con- 

 cerned, honour is again due to Sir V. Horsley. On 

 8th February 1890, he published the suggestion 

 that thyroid-tissue, from an animal just killed, 

 should be transplanted beneath the skin of a myxe- 

 dematous patient : — 



"The justification of this procedure rested on 



