Epitome of current researches on subjects connected with medicine and the medical sciences / editors N.H. Martin, C.E. Stuart, H. Spargo.

Date:
[1894?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epitome of current researches on subjects connected with medicine and the medical sciences / editors N.H. Martin, C.E. Stuart, H. Spargo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Following the publication of the above Report, various suggestions were made as to the possibility of curing the complaint by supplying to the animal economy the ingredient which, in the normal condition of the thyroid gland, main- tained the being in health. In 1889 and 1890 this mainly took the form of suggestions for the transplantation, or graft- ing of healthy thyroid glands from some animal into the affected person. In 1891 a great advance upon this method was made by Dr George R. Murray, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, who inferred from the etiology of the disease and the results which had been obtained by grafting, that “ it seems reason- able to suppose that the same amount of improvement might be obtained by simply injecting the juice or an extract of the thyroid gland of the sheep beneath the skin of the patient.” Dr Murray commenced the treatment of a case in April, 1891, and reported the successful result to the meeting of the British Medical Association, held at Bournemouth, in July of that year. This method of treatment has since then been followed with most striking success, and the published results are characterized by the Editor of The British Medical Journal (Feb. 4th, 1893), as “ the most striking and significant triumphs which have ever been won in the field of practice.” If any one is inclined to think this language in the very smallest degree exaggerated, let him turn to the column “ treatment,” in the tables appended to the report to which we have referred, and he will see that anything like permanent improvement of the cases under the various forms of treatment is unknown, and even “ slight improvement ” is only recorded in a few cases. In fact, up till 1891, Myxoedema was practically an incurable complaint,* whereas, since the commencement of its treatment by thyroid extract it has become, if not absolu- tely curable, at least one of the most tractable of maladies, so far as the relief of all the unpleasant and dangerous symptoms are concerned. It will be impossible, in the space at our command, to give an adequate summary of the papers which have recently appeared on this subject; but we give a list of many of the more important of these in the following table, and under the heading “ Remarks,” we have endeavoured to indicate the most striking feature of each paper, so that medical men may at once turn to the one most likely to supply the information sought. We gather, generally, that in giving the extract by hypodermic injection, great care should be taken to sterilise the syringe and especially the # Professor Victor Horsley, in 1890, writes—“These diseases (Myxoedema, Cachexia Strumipriva, and allied diseases), are hopelessly incurable with present remedies.— B. M. J., Peb. 8, 1890, page 287.
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