In 1893 Osler was among the first American physicians to use thyroid extract to treat myxedema or cretinism. He made a special study of the disease, corresponding with physicians across America to try to determine its prevalence. In the 1895 revision of his 1893 text he hailed the results of thyroid feeding as 'unparalleled by anything in the whole range of curative measures. Within six weeks a poor, feeble-minded, toad-like caricature of humanity may be restored to mental and bodily health.' In 1897 he delivered a major paper, 'Sporadic Cretinism in America,' to a Washington Congress of Physicians and Surgeons in which he used stunning before-and-after lantern slides [reproduced as half-tone photographs in the journal article] to show marvelous transformations and 'undreamt-of transfigurations,' and in addition to citing all the medical literature on the subject also referred to descriptions by Milton, Shakespeare, and an instance of 'the brave kiss of the daughter of Hippocrates'" (Bliss, William Osler: A Life in Medicine, 243-244).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.