EXOPIITHALMIC GOITRE.—II. C. Wood observed three cases in which spleen ex tract produced very satisfactory results. One was cured and the other two were greatly improved. The advisability of trying this remedy is thus greatly em phasized.
Case of severe chronic exophthalmic goitre treated some years ago, in which an acute splenitis developed in a manner which was altogether inexplicable; no cause for the attack could be made out. Deep in the parenchyma of the organ there was formed an abscess whose open ing and discharge were, after many months of severe sepsis and desperate illness, followed by return to health. In the second or third week of the splenitis the enlarged thyroid began to diminish, and in a short time regained the normal size. The result was a permanent cure of the exophthalmic goitre. no symptoms of the disease returning.
In a private case the disease was of six years' duration; the exophthalmos was very pronounced; the action of the heart extremely rapid and irregular: about The enlargement of the thyroid was very great. The breathless
ness was marked, and the general nerv ous erethism such that the patient was on the verge of insanity. A teaspoonful of the glycerin extract of spleen produced at once violent gastric distress, with local pain, lasting for some hours, and com plete disgust for food. Other doses gave similar results. Following this, 10 minims were injected twice a day hypo dermically into different portions of the body; they produced much local pain and hardening of tissue, but no abscess. This was kept up for six months, when 10 drops of the spleen extract with 10 drops of digitalis were administered three times a day. The improvement began not a great while after the commence ment, and gradually increased. Before the treatment there was extreme breath lessness; now she walks comfortably for a long distance. H. C. Wood (Amer. Jour. Med. Sciences, May, '97).