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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    indebted, not only for the name by which the disease is now universally designated, but also for a great deal of what is known of its symptoms and of its pathology. This report practically proved the identity of myxcedema, sporadic cretinism, and the condition called by Kocher of Berne, cachexia strumipriva, which has been observed to develop after total extirpation of the thyroid gland. It will necessarily rank as the standard work of reference on the subject for many years to come. Dr. Ord's first observa- tions were made in 1861. His first complete recorded notes of this disease were published in the Transactions of the Medico-Chirurgical Society at p. 71 of the sixty-first volume for the year 1877. To Dr. Hector Mackenzie I am indebted for many of the preceding facts. His description of the steps by which the success of the thyroidin treatment was established, is so graphic and interesting, that I am tempted to reproduce it at length. In regard to treatment, at the time of the Clinical Society's report little could be done to alleviate the disease, little or nothing to check its progress. Tonics, jaborandi and nitro-glycerine were given to improve the appetite and to act upon the skin, and were reported to have produced temporary benefit. For such patients as could afford it, migration to warmer climates during the winter was strongly recommended. But the labours of Dr. Ord, Professor Horsley, Dr. Semon and others had brought the knowledge of the disease to such a pitch that a cure for it was not long wanting. Dr. Ord in his original communications on the subject had called special attention to the atrophic condition of the thyroid gland. Dr. Semon, struck by the resemblance of the train of symptoms observed by Kocher to follow after complete thyroidectomy, had first brought the matter forward in this country, and by indefatigable energy was principally instrumental in collecting the vast amount of evidence tend- ing to prove the identity of this cachexia with myxcedema. Professor Horsley, by numerous laborious experiments, showed the close resemblance of the dyscrasia, produced in some of the lower animals by the removal of the thyroid