THYROTOXICOSIS IN CHILDHOOD

Abstract

In 1851, more than half a century after Parry1had recorded the first authentic case of exophthalmic goiter in the adult, Romberg and Henoch2were the first to report a case in a child, aged 14. Almost half a century later, in 1896 and 1897, Steiner,3in a comprehensive study of exophthalmic goiter in childhood, was able to collect from the literature only thirty-one cases in children less than 15 years of age. On consulting Sattler,4 when one learns that 1,391 contributions on exophthalmic goiter had appeared before the date of Steiner's publication, one obtains a vivid and graphic impression of the excessive rarity of exophthalmic goiter in childhood as reflected in the medical literature at the close of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, this impression of the excessive rarity of thyrotoxicosis in childhood, which is being continually emphasized in the medical literature, is no longer entirely in