There can thus be no doubt, from these beautiful experiments of Breisacher, that meat does contain substances that are poisonous, and we may safely draw the conclusion therefrom that if we, who are in possession of our thyroid, do not suffer from a meat diet, it is due to the protection afforded us by this gland. If we remove this, as in the instances given of the dogs, or if it is degenerated by disease, then our immunity also disappears. In myxœdematous people this is self-evident, for they are always worse after taking meat, and most of them have an antipathy to this sort of food. Also in many cases of severe diabetes (a myxœdematous condition), meat is very injurious, and if taken in large quantities can contribute to the development of acidosis.[170] Footnote 170: “Untersuchungen über die Glandula Thyroidea,” Breisacher: Archiv für Anatomie und Physiologie, p. 504, 1890. The above-mentioned experiments of Breisacher have been confirmed by F. Blum, of Frankfort. He finds also that omnivorous animals operated on as the dogs, if fed with meat, die from tetany in a few days. But when such animals have been kept on milk for a long time, before and after the operation, a large proportion have survived, or, at most, passed through a mild form of tetany, and continued well until meat was again administered, when their condition soon became worse, and death ensued, as in the case of the animals kept on a meat diet. Some of the dogs fed on milk also died, but before succumbing they underwent a long cachectic illness. In any event they lived longer than the animals fed with meat, which rapidly died with violent symptoms. Dr. Blum arrived at the conclusion that the thyroid is a disintoxicating organ (entgiftendes organ) the function of which is to destroy poisonous products formed by the decomposition of the albuminous food-substances.[171] Footnote 171: Virchow’s Archiv für Path. Anatomie und Physiologie und klin. Medicin, vols. 158, 162. The Japanese authority, Kishi, also arrived at the same conclusion, after having removed the thyroid gland from 150 monkeys, dogs, and other animals. That the products of the decomposition of albuminoids can produce changes in the thyroid has been proved by Galeotti and Lindemann, who found an increase of colloid substance in the thyroid of animals after the injection of leucin and tyrosin,—which are the products of decomposition of albuminous substances. That meat acts in an injurious manner on the thyroid gland, if eaten in very large quantities, has been proved by clinical observations and by the experiments of Chalmers Watson, into which we shall enter more fully in the chapter on the dangers of too free a meat diet.