THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY REMOVAL OF THE THYROID AND PARATHYROID GLANDS UPON NITROGENOUS METABOLISM IN THE SHEEP

It was only after the foregoing communication had been sent to proof that I became acquainted with the paper of Frontali, “Sur le métabolisme de la créatine‐créatinine dans le jeûne et aprés la thyroidectomie totale,” Arch. intern. physiol., xiii. p. 43l, August 31, 1913. Frontali found that total thyroidectomy in dogs is followed by the elimiination of quite remarkable quantities of creatine. The creatinuria appeared even before the animals refused food, and was, moreover, of much greater degree than that caused by fasting alone; on one occasion the output of creatine exceeded that of creatinine. My own observations on sheep are, it will be seen, in agreement with those of Frontali on dogs. Frontali made the further very important observation that, during a week or more of survival, the creatine content of the thyroidectomised dogs' muscles diminished 18 to 45 per cent.; and a similar result was obtained with a six‐months‐old lamb. This affords strong support to the suggestion made in the text, that the high creatine output after thyroidectomy depends on processes which have their locus in the muscles.