The Hospital Bulletin, Vol. V, No. 3, May 15, 1909Various
History
The Hospital Bulletin, Vol. V, No. 3, May 15, 1909
Various
Medical colleges -- Alumni and alumnae -- Maryland -- Baltimore -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals
_Symptoms_—The symptoms are practically identical with those of the
myxoedema which follows the removal of the thyroid gland in adults. The
symptoms of cretinism in most cases in infants make their appearance
during the first year, occasionally, however, not until the child is
three or four years of age. The appearance of the cretin is very
striking, and so characteristic that when once seen the disease can
hardly fail to be recognized. The child is much dwarfed, the fingers and
toes are short and stumpy, the cutaneous tissues seem to be thick and
boggy, but do not pit on pressure, as in ordinary oedema. The facies is
extremely characteristic. The head seems large for the body, the
fontanel is open until the eighth or tenth year, the forehead is low and
the base of the nose broad, so that the eyes seem unusually wide apart.
The lips are thick, the mouth half open and the tongue protrudes
slightly, the cheeks are baggy and the hair is coarse, short and
straight, and the skin has the peculiar leathery feel of elephant skin.
The abdomen is pendulous, large, streaked with prominent veins, and
reminds one of rickets. The skin is dry, the voice husky and rough.
There is but one word which describes the peculiar clumsy manner of
walking—that word is waddle. The child actually waddles like a duck. The
temperature is always subnormal, and one of the things the mother will
always call to your attention is the fact that the child has such cold
hands and feet and requires so much more cover than the other children.
Cretins are dull, placid and good natured, never quarrelsome.
_Treatment_—There is no tendency toward spontaneous improvement. These
cases have until the last few years been considered hopeless and
condemned to a life of idiocy. Really, in the treatment of cretinism in
the adult marvelous results have been got from the administration of the
dried and dessicated extract of the thyroid gland of the sheep. This has
led to its use in the myxoedema of infancy. The results are astounding.
The child grows mentally and physically, takes note of surroundings to
which it formerly paid no attention whatever, and can be taught almost
as well as a perfectly normal child. In all cases the thyroid extract
must be kept up indefinitely, the dose being gradually increased,
otherwise the improvement ceases at once.
ITEMS.
At the commencement of the University Hospital School for Nurses, held
May 5th, the following nurses received their diplomas. The address to
the graduates was delivered by Dr. A. M. Shipley:
Miss Elizabeth Getzendanner was the president of the class, and Miss
Lucy B. Squires was the secretary.
Those who received diplomas were:
Miss Catherine Mabel Dukes, Maryland.
Miss Anna May Green, North Carolina.
Miss Laura Schley Chapline, West Virginia.
Miss Louise Dorsey Pue, Maryland.
Miss Grace Schoolfield Tull, Maryland.
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