In connection with an extended study of the basal metabolism in exophthalmic goiter, which has been in progress since 1914 and on which a preliminary report was published in the spring of 1917,1 opportunities arose to study several cases of hypothyroidism.
The present series comprises observations on six patients and includes practically every condition clinically associated with hypothyroidism, namely, myxedema, cretinism, cachexia strumipriva, and cancer of the thyroid gland. The effect of thyroid administration on the basal metabolism has been studied over a long period of time in the case of a cretin and in one patient with myxedema; also in a patient with cachexia strumipriva, before, during and after the appearance of hypothyroid symptoms.
The methods employed have been fully described in earlier papers,2 and consisted briefly in the determination of the gas exchange of the recumbent subject while in the postabsorptive condition by means of the small Benedict