Thyroid and Temperature in Cold-blooded Vertebrates

Abstract

THIS problem which Prof. Huxley discusses in NATURE of May 11, p. 712, is a very intriguing one. To me it appears to have more difficulties than Prof. Huxley allows for. He begins by saying that “it is well known that the thyroid is concerned with temperature regulation in homothermic animals”. In my recently published book, “Fever, Heat Regulation, Climate, and the Thyroid Adrenal Apparatus”, I have reviewed the very scanty and contradictory literature on this subject, and one could scarcely say that the relationship of the thyroid gland to heat regulation has been previously either well known or well understood. I dare scarcely hope that my own views on the problem as set forth in a book published only a year ago have already been assimilated so completely as to have become a commonplace of scientific literature.