Thymic Death

Like many affectionate, wilful children, three-year-old Noel Galvin was jealous of the new sister his mother brought to their Brooklyn home two months ago. One evening last week Noel found himself alone with Sister Dolores. When the mother came upon them the girl was dead. Scratches and bruises on her made police jump to the conclusion that jealous Noel had beaten her to death with his toy airplane. But the medical examiner, Dr. George W. Ruger, absolved the boy, certified that the infant's death was due to sudden enlargement of her thymus.

The thymus (sweetbread) is a gland located above the heart, at the root of the neck. Together with the pituitary it controls growth through infancy (1 to 6 years) and childhood (6 to 14 years). It normally disappears at puberty.

A baby with an enlarged thymus is usually fat and flabby. Because the thymus presses upon the windpipe, gullet, large blood vessels and nerves, a thymic baby when excited will develop harsh breathing, turn blue, hold his breath, go into convulsions. Immediate remedy is an oxygen tent. X-rays of the infant's chest will reveal any enlargement of the thymus. X-ray irradiations will reduce an enlarged thymus. The complexions of thymic children after irradiation never seem to grow old, always remain peaches & cream.

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