EXPERIMENTS ON THE RELATION OF THE THYROID TO DIET

Abstract

From the results of some recently published experiments¹I suggested the hypothesis that certain diets have specific effects on the activity of the thyroid gland; the results of these physiologic experiments were, in part, in accord with histologic studies made some time ago by Watson. This hypothesis was based largely on the fact that certain diets have an effect on the resistance of animals to certain poisons similar to that caused by the administration of thyroid, and, further, on the observation that the effect of the administration of iodin to animals is, in part, determined by the character of the diet; it was held that the hitter determined the ability of the thyroid to combine with the iodin. I have recently endeavored to put this hypothesis to further experimental test. The results are in entire harmony with the above views, although I do not consider the experiments sufficiently numerous