Hydrocephalus results when there is an excessive secretion of spinal fluid, or diminished absorption.1 A number of ingenious surgical procedures have been devised for the relief of hydrocephalus, and at times brilliant results have been obtained. The operative mortality, however, is extremely high. Repeated lumbar or ventricular puncture is generally used as a means of controlling the rapidity of development of hydrocephalus. Medical means of controlling the secretion or absorption of the cerebrospinal fluid have, up to the present time, met with indifferent success. There is some evidence that the administration of thyroid by mouth diminishes the secretion of cerebrospinal fluid.2 In general, however, thyroid therapy in hydrocephalus has been disappointing.
In the course of some observations on edema,3 it was found that when the surface tension of the blood was low, fluids tended to pass out of the blood and into serous cavities and intercellular spaces,