About the influence of thyroidectomy on the growth and development of the bone and nervous system in young animals

The multifaceted and dark question of the function of the thyroid gland is extremely important, since it is associated with very many serious issues from various areas of medical science. By the way, in the last time, the question of trophic influences of the thyroid glands is increasingly emerging, the question of whether the proper nutrition and development of tissues can depend on the function of the gland. It would be extremely interesting and important to solve this question, since in the direct connection with him there is the question of the immediate ethology of cretinism. Many observations (Virchow, Kocher, Bruns, Grundier, etc.) confirm the existence of a relationship between the action of the gland and the correct nutrition and development of tissues, therefore it would be important to establish this relationship not by an observational, but by a purely experimental way: that is, to put the animal in observed by observers conditions (loss of function of the gland) and see if we get the described phenomena (trophic disorders). With this goal in the course of 1896, in the laboratory of the highly respected Professor V.M. Bekhterev, I undertook a number of experiments aimed at finding out the influence of the function of the thyroid gland on the development of growing animal tissues of the body, mainly bone and nervous, as the most interested in the manifestations of cretinism.