The study of thyroid disease has progressed in a manner similar to that of kidney disturbances. Each has resulted in the introduction into the literature of many classifications. For this reason antagonistic views have always existed between clinicians and pathologists concerning the study of irregularities in these organs.
While, therefore, the literature of the thyroid gland is considerable, comprehensive clinicopathologic analyses that might mitigate these differences have not been found. Most pathologic studies of the thyroid gland have been either in the form of simple academic outlines of pure pathology or as histopathologic studies correlated with certain of the more striking symptoms. One of the earliest classifications of thyroid changes in relation to symptoms was that proposed in 1908 by Wilson,1 who found that general changes in the thyroid parenchyma paralleled the character and intensity of symptoms produced. Later Wilson2 differentiated the pathologic changes in simple and exophthalmic