EFFECT OF THYROIDECTOMY ON RESISTANCE TO LOW ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURE1

FROM the evidence available in the literature, it is difficult to estimate the role of the thyroid gland in the resistance of animals to cold. Removal of this gland was found to interfere with the regulation of body temperature on exposure to cold (Boldyreff, 1913; Cori, 1922; Shenck, 1922; Pfeiffer, 1923; Abderhalden, 1925; Korenchevsky, 1926; Wadi, 1927; Fetscherin, 1934; Ring, 1939), although contradictory results have been reported (Isenschmid, 1922, 1923). On the other hand, the increased amount of heat produced by animals kept at low temperatures was not affected by thyroid removal (Hildebrandt, 1921; Grafe and von Redwitz, 1922; Isenschmid, 1923; Collip and Billingsley, 1936; Ring, 1936) or only slightly (Ring, 1939, 1942), so that some investigators have questioned the importance of this gland in the response to cold (Hildebrandt, 1921; Isenschmid, 1923). Incidental mention of shorter survival in the cold after thyroidectomy has also been made in the literature (Pfeiffer, 1923; Korenchevsky, 1926;...