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Defining Thyroid Hormone: Its Nature and Control

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Endocrinology

Part of the book series: People and Ideas ((PEOPL))

Abstract

At the July 1891 annual meeting of the British Medical Association in Bournemouth, England, George R. Murray (40) reported success in treating myxedema (Fig. 1), thought to be incurable, with injections of sheep thyroid extract. The patient (a 46-year-old woman) made a remarkable recovery and lived in good health for twenty-eight more years. Murray recommended this treatment for patients not only with overt myxedema but also after total thyroidectomy. This report on a single patient did more than provide an effective therapy. It showed that the thyroid gland contained and probably secreted something that was physiologically potent and affected the entire body; the nature of that something was unknown, but it was real and not simply speculation. Understanding of thyroid function began in earnest.

That we can today restore children otherwise doomed to helpless idiocy—that we can restore to life the hopeless victims of myxoedema—is a triumph of experimental medicine.

William Osler

The Principles and Practice of Medicine, 1896

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  1. Clark T. Sawin
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S. M. McCann

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© 1988 American Physiological Society

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Sawin, C.T. (1988). Defining Thyroid Hormone: Its Nature and Control. In: McCann, S.M. (eds) Endocrinology. People and Ideas. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7436-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7436-4_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7436-4

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