RECENT reports by the MacKenzies (1943) and by Astwood et al. (1943 a and b) on the goitrogenic action of certain sulfonamides and thiourea-like drugs have provided a new approach to the study of thyroid physiology. These agents were found not only to produce goiters but also to lower the metabolic rates of experimental animals. The apparent thyroid depressing action of these agents led Astwood (1943c) to use thiourea and thiouracil in treating thyrotoxic patients. He observed a definite lowering of the metabolic rates of such thyrotoxic patients. An understanding of the mode of action of these thyroid depressants would be of real and practical value to the clinician who treats abnormal thyroid states. Such an understanding may also lead to important fundamental information concerning the physiology of the normal thyroid gland and may reveal something of the pathologic physiology of Graves' disease.
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Rawson et al. (1944) studied this question.