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Martin L. Nusynowitz, MD

JAMA. 1983;250(15):2047-2048.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

How fitting that on Christmas day, 1914, while the armies of Europe were locked in mortal combat, there was isolated the substance that would be the salvation of unnumbered thousands afflicted with hypothyroidism, bringing to them life and well-being. On that day, Edward C. Kendall crystallized and isolated thyroxine, enabling the determination of its chemistry.¹ Within 12 years, Harrington and Barger² were able to delineate its structure and synthesize the hormone.

Kendall's accomplishment was the capstone of more than 40 years of work on hypothyroidism. In 1871, Fagge³ described spontaneous cretinism and speculated on the appearance of the disease occurring in adults, and three years later, Gull⁴ first described adult myxedema.

Although thyroid extirpation experiments in animals were occurring about this time, the association between Gull's disease and the thyroid gland was not well established until two Swiss surgeons, Reverdin and Kocher,^5,6 reported on the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Radiology, Division of Nuclear Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77550 (Dr Nusynowitz).

A commentary on Kendall EC: The isolation in crystalline form of the compound containing iodin, which occurs in the thyroid. JAMA 1915;64:2042-2043.

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