Serum proteins were examined by flocculation tests and by paper electrophoresis in 246 patients. The colloidal gold test was found to be a fairly good, but not invariabty reliable, criterion of Hashimoto's disease when other causes of abnormality have been excluded. The albumin/γ-globulin ratio was also found to be a useful diagnostic criterion in Hashimoto’s disease. The contention could not be maintained that the primary factor in this disorder is failure of the thyroid cells. In hypothyroidism apart from Hashimoto’s disease, the β-globulin fraction was increased and the γ-globulin fraction was normal. The reverse was true in Hashimoto’s disease.

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