ABSTRACT
As all mental functioning as far as know is dependent upon the functioning of body and brain, it follows inevitably that what affects the physical and chemical constitution of the body and its brain must also affect the mind, and a physician whose special province it is to deal with mental or psychogenic disturbances. The practitioner, physician or psychologist who misses a case of primary thyroid deficiency whether in an infant or adult is culpable of serious malpractice. The intellectual retardation in cretins is hardly remediable by any process other than the adequate supply of the missing thyroid substance. Apart from glandular treatment, practically the only chemical stimulant which the physician or psychiatrist prescribes that is worthy of a reference is benzedrine. This is admittedly a specific in narcolepsy, a disease which is rare enough to have eluded in thirty years of practice.
