Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/498

484 pathologists who, in their examination of all the organs of persons dead with myxœdema, found that there existed constant disease in the thyroid, so that it became established beyond doubt that these symptoms, which were so much like those of Bright's disease, were in reality due, not to the ordinary causes of Bright's disease, but to a chronic inflammation of the thyroid gland—a process which resulted in the diminution or loss of the function of the gland, and a consequent deprivation of the secretion which it was intended to supply.

The symptoms which ensued after extirpation of the thyroid gland, whether in man or in the lower animals, received the name of cachexia thyreopriva, or operative myxœdema; when the condition occurred independently of such operations—i. e., from primary disease in the gland—it was called myxœdema; but although the pathology of myxœdematous conditions thus became established, it was a long time before it became known how they could be cured; and again it was due to the ingenuity and observation of physiologists and surgeons that it eventually became possible for the physician to apply a form of treatment which has proved curative for myxœdematous conditions of whatever origin.

It occurred to physiologists that if another thyroid could be made to grow beneath the skin of an animal whose own gland had been removed, the new thyroid might assume the functions of the one which was gone; and surgeons conceived the same idea for patients from whom the thyroid had been removed at operation. This was accordingly tried: physiologists grafted sheep's glands in monkeys whose own thyroid they had removed experimentally; and surgeons put sheep's glands beneath the skin of patients who had been operated upon on account of thyroid disease. Although these procedures were only partially successful, they were the beginnings which led to the ultimate establishment of the thyroid treatment. The results of these graftings were beneficial for a time, but as the transplanted thyroid could not be made to accommodate itself to its new home, the effects soon wore away and the myxœdematous symptoms returned. The temporary benefit, however, was so pronounced that it was evident that the disease had in some way been influenced by the grafted thyroid. Since the gland at the time of its transplantation was full of its normal secretion, but could not be made to secrete further after grafting, it was inferred that the beneficial influence was solely due to the thyroid juice which the grafted gland contained. So it became evident that the successful treatment of myxœdematous conditions required an uninterrupted supply of thyroid secretion. It was not until 1891 that Dr. G. R. Murray drew this conclusion, and presented at a