Читать книгу The Body at Work: A Treatise on the Principles of Physiology онлайн

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Cretinism exhibits itself in varying degrees. The description that we have just given would not be accurate for all. For the sake of brevity, we have chosen a case which might be that of a goitrous cretin of a certain type, or that of a cretin whose thyroid gland, in lieu of showing what looks like overgrowth, has failed to properly develop. Nothing is more remarkable with regard to this organ than the fact that the condition associated with its overgrowth and the effects of its atrophy, or inadequate growth, are the same. A consideration of the function of the gland will suggest an explanation of this seeming paradox.

The inconvenience caused by goitre induced surgeons, about twenty-five years ago, to remove the tumour in simple uncomplicated cases. Owing to the accessibility of the gland, the operation is both safe and easy; but its removal was found to be followed by symptoms of a very serious nature, especially overgrowth and œdema of subcutaneous tissue, muscular twitchings and convulsions, mental dulness. About the same date, physicians recognized that the disease myxœdema—so called because the œdema is not watery, as in dropsy, but firm and jelly-like—is due to deficiency of the thyroid gland.