Myxoedema, cretinism and the goitres, with some of their relations / by Edward T. Blake.

  • Blake, Edward T. (Edward Thomas), 1842-1905.
Date:
[1894]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Myxoedema, cretinism and the goitres, with some of their relations / by Edward T. Blake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    How, may we ask, are these terrible poisons eliminated during life? The glands of the human body are especially commissioned to play the part of scavengers. In primitive unicellular organisms, such as the moneron and the amoeba, one cell must undertake all kinds of katabolism. But the tendency of complex organisms is always towards the division of labour, so that in an advanced stage of physiological evolution, as in the higher mammals, the glands have slowly elaborated a selective function. That they will, if time be allowed, uneducate themselves is quite true. But, just as this painful process of selection has required countless ages for elaboration, so the element of time is a needful factor in the backward road of return, ardua vestigia retrorsum. This is one reason why the sudden removal of an important solitary gland is followed by death, whilst its gradual destruction will be tolerated and life may continue. Attempts have been made to solve the problem of the utility of the thyroid body and of the adrenals by the negative metbod of ablation. In rabbits, M. Gley has found that the removal of the thyroid body and of two small embryonic bodies named thyroid granules, usually leads to rapid death preceded by convulsions, though a few animals present, in the course of some months, a special form of cachexia resembling the myxoedema of man. M. Langlois finds that excision of both adrenals occasions death in the course of twenty-four hours with loss of muscular power, dyspncea, and sometimes convulsions ; but if only one be removed, life is usually preserved, the animal becoming very thin. (Lancet, Dec. 30th, 1893., p. 1623.) The liver, the spleen, the kidney, the intestinal glands and the adrenals appear to possess the property of turning out broken down blood-pigment. In diseases of these organs certain colouring matters are left in the circulation and they become irregularly deposited in the tissues. I say deposited though it would certainly be more accurate to put it thus : the removal of unneeded pigment granules is arrested. These so-called deposits are chiefly made in areas under the control of certain nerves ; notably of the musculo-spiral and of the fifth cranial pair.