CHILDHOOD MYXEDEMA OBSERVATIONS THROUGH INFANCY, CHILDHOOD AND EARLY ADULT LIFE

Abstract

The cerm cretinism implies a congenital disease characterized by physical and mental retardation due to an absence or deficiency of the normal thyroid secretion. The degree of physical and mental infirmity is dependent entirely upon the supply of the thyroid gland product. The disease was described by Paracelsus1 early in the 17th century. He was the first to point out the connection between cretinism of the offspring and goitre of the parents. Wolfgang Hoefer,2 an Austrian physician, published in 1675 his observations on cretinism in the Styrian Mountains. Until the middle of the 19th century, however, the disease was only imperfectly differentiated. Fagge described the sporadic form in 1871 and, in 1873 Gull emphasized the similarity of the disease to adult myxedema. Some years later, following the experiments conducted by Victor Horsley, a Commission appointed by the Clinical Society of London reported that myxedema and cachexia strumipriva were identical, that sporadic cretinism was myxedema occurring...