II. Further researches into the function of the thyroid gland and into the pathological state produced by removal of the same
In December, 1884, I showed that the thyroid gland was intimately connected with the process of mucin metabolism, that if the thyroid gland in monkeys was removed with antiseptic precautions (the same ensuring healing of the wound in three days) the consequences to the animal were—(1) symptoms of general nervous disturbance evidenced by tremors, paroxysmal convulsions, functional paralysis, mental hebetude, and finally complete imbecility; (2) profound anæmia coupled with leucocytosis; (3) all the symptoms of the disease discovered within the last decade and termed myxœdema; (4) that just as in the acute form of the disease just named there was found to be a great accumulation of mucin in the connective tissues throughout the body (mucinoid degeneration), and in the blood, and as a consequence the same post-mortem appearances; (5) that at the same time there was a great activity in the mucin-secreting glands, and, further, that the parotid gland under these abnormal circumstances secreted mucin in large quantity, the gland cells at the same time disintegrating.