Thymus feeding in exophthalmic goître / by David Owen.

  • Owen, David.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thymus feeding in exophthalmic goître / by David Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    aiij;le of scapula. Pulse, after several miuutos’ rest, was 133 ; there were marked tremors of the bauds, especially the left. The patient was seen again four days later, July 6th. In the meantime he had taken about two ounces of raw cervical thymus, with mint sauce. He said he felt much better; tremors were scarcely perceptible ; pulse 124. On July 7th the patient felt still better, and had been able to play cricket the day before. The thyroid was reduced in size ; circumference of neck, loj- inches; pulse 133. Ha stated that he had taken about two ounces of thymus since he saw me last. He remarked that the gland seemed to have a stimulating effect about half an hour after it had been taken. He shortly afterwards went to Scotland for a few days, where he continued taking the thymus, and did so after his return home until the winter. He steadily improved, and has kept well ever since. I saw him last on June 20, 1S96. He w'as then well nourished. E.vophthalmos, tremors, palpitation, and pigmentation had all disappeared. Pulse 80. There was still some enlargement of the thyroid ; circum- ference of neck, 15^ inches. The murmur was still present. The dose taken by these patients was half an ounce to an ounce, two or three times a week, sometimes oftener. The size of the dose tolerated shows how much less potent the thymus is therapeutically than the thyroid, which perhaps is not surprising when we remember that the fully- developed thymus is much larger than the thyroid. The taking of the raw gland is very disagreeable, but probably slightly cooking it would not affect its action ; in fact, R. H. Cunningham^ records two cases, in which giving slightly broiled thymus led to good results. The only pharma- ceutical preparation which I have tried is a glycerine extract, specially prepared by Messrs. Woolley, in the proportion of one lobe to the ounce. It was only tried in one case, and though the patient ultimately got quite well, the effect, at first, w'as not so striking as when the raw gland was given to the other patients. This case was that of a young woman, aged 25, who had found it impossible to take the raw gland. She had been an in-patient seven years before at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, with Graves’ disease, and had then recovered her health after a few months’ illness. She remained well for five years, but then began again to suffer from palpitation, breathlessness, general weakness, marked loss of flesh, and emotional outbreaks, I saw her on Juno IGth, 1894. She was very much emaciated; exophthalmos, goitre, and tremors were w’oll