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CHAPTER III.
On the Agencies which Govern Immunity Against Infections and Intoxications—The Origin of Fever.
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From the moment of our birth we are constantly exposed to the incessant attacks of innumerable bacteria and to the effects of a large amount of poisonous material formed within our body or introduced from without, and if we survive this ceaseless battle it is due to the powerful weapon we possess in the internal secretion of the ductless glands, especially of the thyroid gland. That this gland possesses very energetic antitoxic properties can be shown by the fact that when it is extirpated animals or persons very readily acquire infectious diseases of all sorts. Thus, the late Professor Charrin,[44] of Paris, showed several years ago how readily dogs that have lost their thyroid succumb to all possible infections. Professor W. S. Greenfield,[45] of Edinburgh, has found that persons suffering from myxœdema (athyroidia) very often die from tuberculosis, and Professor Pel,[46] of Amsterdam, found a great frequency of tuberculosis in the families of myxœdematous persons. This coincides with the conclusions of Prof. G. R. Murray,[47] Professor Lanz, and ourself, that the properties of the thyroid can be inherited. Sajous has shown, moreover, that the pituitary, the adrenals and the thyroid constituted the autoprotective mechanism of the body against disease, a fact not only sustained by the above evidence, but also by a vast number of additional facts.