Читать книгу Old Age Deferred. The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures онлайн

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We have already noted that in syphilis and other cachectic diseases such as alcoholism, malaria, tuberculosis, etc., the thyroid gland becomes degenerated (Garnier, Hertoghe, etc.), and that the fœtuses of such parents demonstrate congenital atrophy of the thyroid (Garnier^[115] and Perrando^[116]). We can thus understand the observations of Hertoghe, who found that nearly all cases of infantile or congenital myxœdema were born of parents suffering from the above-named diseases. Of very great value, also, is the observation of Professor Pel.^[117] He diagnosed a case of syphilis in the father, myxœdema in the daughter and acromegaly in the son.

As shown by many observers, including ourself, the ductless glands stand together in a very close relationship, and thus we may find that when one member of a family shows an alteration of the ductless glands, we may discover in the same family other members affected by alterations of the same or other ductless glands. The case of Pel is a fine illustration of this point; the syphilis of the father with its morbid influence on his thyroid resulting in the hereditary transmission of a degenerated thyroid to the daughter, and the consequent supervention of myxœdema. The son had an altered condition of the pituitary body, and thus developed acromegaly. The altered condition of the pituitary body may have been secondary to the previous alteration of the thyroid inherited congenitally, if we take into consideration the fact that, as I showed in a communication to the International Congress of Medicine in Madrid, in 1903, acromegaly is due to primary alterations in the thyroid which, in the same way as is demonstrated by experiments on animals, may lead secondarily to alterations of the pituitary closely connected with the former gland. The qualities of the sexual glands can also be inherited. Thus, there are cases of mothers whose menstruation began very early, i.e., at the age of 9 or 10, and lasted until the age of 56 to 60, and who had many children, among whom were daughters showing similar conditions. On the other hand, we may see difficulties of menstruation in the mother also inherited by the daughter.