Nerves / by David Fraser Harris.

  • David Fraser Fraser-Harris
Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nerves / by David Fraser Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    little gland in the front of the throat—the thyroid—is diseased, as it is in goitre, then not only do the skin and other tissues become diseased, but the central nervous system suffers very gravely, and the child develops symptoms of imbecility and remains throughout life a poor, stunted, mis-shapen, mindless creature. Feeding it, however, on thyroid glands taken, for instance, from the sheep, soon clears up the condition and res¬ tores it physically and mentally to the normal. A serious disease of adults connected with insufficient activity of this gland, reduces the nervous system to a condition of great en- feeblement which is entirely cleared off by thyroid feeding. Evidently, then, this thyroid gland manufactures something which getting into the blood can influence for good the nerves and nervous system. The something which the gland contributes to the blood is called an internal secretion. When the gland has become diseased or has become a tumour, the nervous system suffers more or less de¬ finitely because the secretion is lacking. Besides being in a condition of deficiency, the gland may also be in a condition of excessive activity, and when this is so, the nervous system is again injuriously affected,
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