Abstract
A comparative study of skeletal muscle from 5 normal sheep and 11 thyroidectomized animals was undertaken, to determine whether definite structural changes in the fibers are present which would account for the development of the pot-belly and general muscular weakness in cretins. Following early thyroidectomy, the normal development of cytoplasm is prevented, and the ratio of muscle to sarcoplasm in the cretin remains more nearly like that in the young animal, than that in the normal of the same age. No degeneration of the fibers is evident, and all the structures of normal muscle are demonstrable.
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