Abstract
We pointed out 1 that chronic, progressive, bilateral exophthalmos, produced in immature (2-3 months old) rabbits, maintained on a diet of alfalfa hay and oats, by the daily intramuscular injection of 0.05-0.1 cc. methyl cyanide, occurs in association with thyroid insufficiency (that is, (a) marked hyperplasia of the thyroid or (b) thyroidectomy). It is obvious, therefore, that exophthalmos is not dependent upon either a normal or abnormal thyroid secretion. Neither do the medulla and cortex of the suprarenal gland have any specific or initial relation to exophthalmos.
To obtain further information on the nature of exophthalmos we have produced it in young normal and thyroidectomized guinea pigs by using acetic acid extracts of anterior pituitary powder (Armour) that Spaul, 2 Uhlenhuth and Schwartzbach, 3 and Loeb and Bassett 4 have shown to contain the thyrotropic hormone and with which Loeb and Bassett have produced exophthalmos in guinea pigs. The data are given in the following table.
It is clear that acetic acid extracts of ox anterior pituitary powder produce exophthalmos as well in thyroidectomized guinea pigs as in those with intact thyroids. Also, as in the case of methyl cyanide, the exophthalmos does not appear in guinea pigs with intact thyroids until they have developed thyroid hyperplasia (thyroid insufficiency), and to both cyanide and anterior pituitary extract some animals are resistant.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.