66 
Preparation  of  Thyroid  Extract. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I    JMl.iuary,  1911. 
all  the  usual  requirements.  By  i  per  cent,  tablet  is  meant  that  i 
per  cent,  of  the  dried  weight  of  the  tablet  is  made  up  of  the  purified 
thyroid  proteid  according  to  the  standard  above  described.  This 
may  seem  to  be  a  very  small  dose,  but  our  experience  proves  to  us 
that  many  patients  cannot  take  a  stronger  tablet  than  this.  The 
I  and  2  per  cent,  tablets  are  used  almost  entirely  in  the  treatment  of 
various  types  of  goitre,  some  of  them  being  of  the  atypical  exoph- 
thalmic variety.  It  is  well  known  that  these  patients  cannot  stand 
heavy  dosing  with  thyroid  proteid.  The  stronger  5  per  cent,  tablets 
are  reserved  almost  exclusively  for  different  metabolic  disorders, 
such  as  various  skin  lesions  or  joint  conditions,  myxoedema,  cretin- 
ism, or  those  conditions  in  which  there  is  a  markedly  deficient  thyroid 
activity.  It  will  be  observed  that  by  the  method  of  standardizing 
and  preparing  the  proteids  for  therapeutic  administration,  a  uniform 
physiological  activity  may  be  expected,  regardless  of  the  character 
of  the  glands  from  which  the  proteid  was  obtained.  A  5  per  cent, 
tablet  always  contains  the  same  cjuantity  of  iodine  whether  the 
proteid  from  which  it  was  made  comes  from  a  pig  gland  containing 
a  relatively  high  quantity  of  iodine  or  from  a  sheep  gland  contain- 
ing a  relatively  low  quantity  of  iodine.  For  some  purposes  it  has 
been  found  advisable  to  administer  the  proteid  hypodermatically 
and,  accordingly,  solutions  of  the  proteid  in  varying  strengths,  stand- 
ardized on  the  iodine  basis,  have  been  put  up  in  sealed  glass  tubes. 
The  products  prepared  according  to  the  method  here  outlined  have 
been  in  use  for  about  two  and  a  half  years.  They  have  been  em- 
ployed in  a  wide  variety  of  clinical  conditions  by  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  experienced  clinicians,  and  the  results  have  demonstrated 
their  value  to  such  an  extent  that  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 
this  method  of  preparing  and  standardizing  thyroid  is  superior  to 
any  method  now  in  vogue,  that  it  gives  all  of  the  physiologically 
active  portions  of  the  gland,  that  it  contains  none  of  the  toxic,  dele- 
terious substances  contained  in  the  whole  extract.  In  my  judgment 
there  is  no  reason  for  supplying  the  wide  variety  of  thyroid  prepara- 
tions which  now  appear  upon  the  market.  The  methods  described 
above  give  everything  that  is  necessary  in  such  form  that  every 
therapeutic  need  is  satisfied. 
REFERENCES. 
^Zeit.  Physiol.  Chem.,  vol.  21,  p.  321,  1896. 
-  Zcit.  Physiol.  Chem.,  vol.  21,  p.  23,  1896. 
