THE INTERNAL SECRETION OF SANDSTROEM’S GLANDS. PARATHYROID HYPOFUNCTION AND ECLAMPSIA

Abstract

In 1896, Vassale and Generali (1) demonstrated experimentally that the parathyroids, which were discovered in 1890 by Sandstroem, and which were believed to be an embryonic residue of the thyroid, are indispensable to life, the abolition of their function causing death from tetany. Afterwards Massaglia (2) completed this study. Operating on puppies, he was able to remove the thyroid without disturbing the two external parathyroids (sometimes in the dog these glands are situated at the anterior poles of the thyroid). In these experiments the animal later developed myxedema, but never developed tetany. In the litter control the removal of both the external and one of the internal parathyroids produced no morbid symptoms, and the animal remained normal. The experiment shows clearly that the thyroid and Sandstroem’s glands have different functions. The former exerts a trophic action on the metabolic changes of the body; when this function is abolished, myxedema follows. The latter exercise an antitoxic action