Desiccated thyroid from older Medical Books

This is an ongoing lis­ting of entries from older medi­cal books con­cer­ning the use of Thy­roid Extract (aka Desic­ca­ted Thy­roid, or Natu­ral Thy­roid Hor­mo­nes like Armour). If you would like to con­tri­bute an entry from an older health book, please send using the Con­tact Me form below, and inc­lude title, author, date, publishers, and page num­bers of entries. Your entry will be very appreciated!

1) 1951 The NEW MODERN MODERN MEDICAL COUNSELOR; A Prac­ti­cal Guide to Health by Hubert O. Swar­tout, MD, DNB, Dr.PH, Review and Herald Publishing Association

Chap­ter 30 DISEASES OF THE DUCTLESS GLANDS, then the subhea­ding called MYXEDEMA, and the sub area tit­led “WHAT SHOULD BE DONE” pg. 507

“Take thy­roid extract under a phy­si­cians super­vi­sion.” Then in the last para­graph, pg. 508:
“Some con­ve­nient pre­pa­ra­tion made from the whole thy­roid gland subs­tance is the ratio­nal remedy for myxe­dema. It brings about remar­ka­ble impro­ve­ment. The patient feels bet­ter, thinks more clearly, and looks bet­ter. There is likely to be con­si­de­ra­ble reduc­tion in excess weight. Neverthe­less, the remedy must be taken with care, espe­cially during the first few weeks of treat­ment, for too sud­den an acce­le­ra­tion of the body pro­ces­ses may throw too great a bur­den upon the wea­ke­ned organs, par­ti­cu­larly the heart. The return to nor­mal con­di­tions should be brought about by gra­dual inc­rea­ses in the dosage and should be spread over a period of at least seve­ral months.”

2) 1953 PHYSICIAN’S DESK REFERENCE TO PHARMACEUTICAL SPECIALTIES AND BIOLOGICALS 1954, Eighth Edi­tion, Copy­right 1953 by Medi­cal Eco­no­mics, Inc., Ruther­ford, New Jer­sey. (thanks to Mary32 for sub­mit­ting this entry)

page 417, under “Thy­roid U.S.P” Dosage: “1/10 to 5 GRAINS DAILY, AS REQUIRED BY THE CLINICAL CONDITION OF THE PATIENT. Uses: “Use­ful in patients who are on long term the­rapy with ACTH or cor­ti­sone to off­set any thy­roid depression.” 

Under “Thy­roid U.S.P.”: “Requi­red daily quan­tity may be given in a sin­gle dose (pre­fe­rably in the mor­ning), ins­tead of seve­ral times a day.” (from Janie – we have found the multi-dosing to be bet­ter and less stress on the adrenals)

3) 1940 – 41 G.P. ETHICAL SPECIALTY PRODUCTS a cata­log pro­du­ced by G.P. Pty Ltd., Manu­fac­tu­rers of Stan­dar­di­zed Bio­lo­gi­cal and Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Pro­ducts. Labo­ra­to­ries and Head Office: 65 Mac­qua­rie Street, Syd­ney, Australia.

One of their pro­ducts, called G.P. Thy­roid (Stan­dar­di­zed), is lis­ted on pages 38 – 39. Com­po­si­tion: A spe­cially pre­pa­red extract of selec­ted whole thy­roid gland, con­tai­ning 0.1 per cent of iodine in com­bi­na­tion. Indi­ca­tions: Myxoe­dema and other thy­roid defi­ciency disor­ders; obe­sity; oedema. Pro­per­ties: Inc­rea­ses basal meta­bo­lism and sti­mu­la­tes diu­re­sis. G.P. THYROID is che­mi­cally assa­yed and each batch, before issue, is BIOLOGICALLY STANDARDIZED BY THE OBSERVATION OF CHANGES IN THE METABOLIC RATE OF MYXOEDEMATOUS PATIENTS OVER A PERIOD OF AT LEAST ONE MONTH.
Dosage and Admi­nis­tra­tion: 1 or more, accor­ding to the amount of fresh subs­tance the phy­si­cian desi­res to presc­ribe. N.B. Each 1 gr. fresh of G.P. THYROID is equi­va­lent in total iodine con­tent to 3/10 gr Thy­roi­deum Sic­cum B.P. 1932. Ori­gi­nal Pac­ka­ges: Bott­les of 100 tablets in the follo­wing strengths: 1/4 grain fresh gland, 1/2 grain fresh gland, 1 grain fresh gland, 1 1/2 grain fresh gland, 2 grain fresh gland, 2 1/2 grain fresh gland, 5 grain fresh gland.

There was also a tablet com­bi­ning Thy­roi­deum Sic­cum with Desic­ca­ted Ova­rian Subs­tance from “fresh whole ova­ries”. The indi­ca­tions for this were mens­trual and meno­pau­sal disor­ders; disor­ders ari­sing from insuf­fi­ciency of ova­rian sec­re­tion, par­ti­cu­larly when there is a ten­dency towards obe­sity. It was desc­ri­bed as “potent ova­rian subs­tance, the­ra­peu­ti­cally inten­si­fied by the syner­gis­tic action of thy­roid gland”.

G.P. Ethi­cal Spe­cialty Pro­ducts were obtai­na­ble through all che­mists in Aus­tra­lia, and also in Ran­goon (Burma), Colombo (Cey­lon), Hong Kong (China), Bang­kok (Siam)and many cities in India, Java, Malaya and New Zea­land, as well as Lon­don. Or direct from the Manu­fac­tu­rers. (thanks to Val for this contribution)