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EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 
EFFECTS OF THYROIDECTOMY IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
By M. G. Moussu. 
The author has performed complete thyroidectomy upon a 
dozen adult rabbits, and none have died. Only two were 
sick, none of the others seeming- to be in any way affected, 
the appetite and strength remaining the same. Those which 
were sick began to show signs of it in forty-eight hours after 
the operation. In the first, it was manifested by clonic con¬ 
tractions of the jaws and of the neck, extending after an hour 
and a half or two hours to all the muscles of the vertebral 
region and superior parts of the legs. Toward the third hour, 
the respiration became accelerated and difficult, and the beat¬ 
ings of the heart increased and became tumultuous. General 
excitation was well marked. The next day the animals were 
in perfect health. 
In the presence of these results, so contrary to those of 
Mr. Gley, all of whose operations were fatal, death following 
in every case where he had performed complete thyroidec¬ 
tomy, M. Moussu thought that probably the age of the ani¬ 
mals might have had some agency in producing the results. 
He then operated on seven others, three and four months 
old, and he then had two deaths after well marked symptoms 
of general tetanus. The disease showed itself as early as the 
twelfth or thirteenth hour, and death took place between the 
fifteenth and twenty-fifth following the operation. Hence, 
young animals seem to be less able to endure the operation 
than adults. 
The author then experimented upon solipeds, and sub¬ 
jected several horses and a donkey to the complete ablation 
of the gland, meeting with no accidents ; all recovered well 
and lived. Similar results were obtained among ruminants 
with cattle and goats. 
In the adult pig the operation was also harmless. But in 
young, sucking animals it gave rise to the evolution of myxce- 
dema. The day of weaning may be deemed the term of or¬ 
ganic development of young animals, and later than this, 
though there may be no acute accident, growth does not con¬ 
tinue. Compared with other animals operated on, the young 
