[Report 1926] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council.
- Cumberland County Council
- Date:
- 1926
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1926] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Certain forms of skin diseases, notably those associated with lack of natural fatty substances, i.e., the “ scaby ” conditions of dry skins, have done remarkably well on Iodine in my experience. Two cases of psoriasis have been treated, and both have done very well indeed. In one, a moderately severe case, it was a matter of great importance to the boy’s parents that the condition should be healed, owing to the fact that the family was about to emigrate, and fears were enter¬ tained that with this eruption, the bo^’ would be rejected by the Emigration M.O. However, when I last saw the boy, every trace of psoriasis had vanished. It is not surprising that results should be .specially good in the case of diA’ skin lesions, as the very fact of the existence of a dry, scaly skin, and a scanty hair growth is highly suggestive of thyroid insufficiency. In this < onnection one cannot fail to bring to mind Sir Byrom Bramwell’s well-known and classic experiments in the treatment of psoriasis with thyroid extract. It is highly suggestive that hrst those conditions for which thyroid extract has been regarded as a specific for years, should be the very cases that do best on Iodine. According to Swale Vincent, the signihcance of Iodine [i.e., in the composition of the thyroid secretion) is problematic, though the beneficial effects of thyroid administered as a drag, seems to depend very largely on its iodine content. Hertoghe, long ago (Practitioner, 1915), drew attention to the very close resemblance that exists between thyroid deficiency and nephritis. I have had a remarkable experience of the truth of this in the case of a school boy at MiUom, whom I strongly suspected of Bright’s Disease. He attended the Clinic regularly, but never once was 1 able to detect the slightest abnormality in the urine to corroborate this. This case forced itself on my mind on reading the above article, and 1 treated him with Iodine—in fact he is still under treat¬ ment—with very beneficial results. Incontinence, from which lie suffered, has cleared u]), a very distended abdomen raising a suspicion of al)dominal tuberculosis, has receded v^cry much, and his general health has improved markedly. Intestinal Stasis. This is a subject of immense interest and importance at the present time, owing to the iirofound toxic infiuence on the sufferer, and to its extreme jirevalence, much more so than is generally realised. To suffer from Intestinal Stasis is to be making for the rocks of old age, irrespective of age in](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29132368_0064.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
