GOITRE MENACE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18228, 12 November 1924, Page 13

GOITRE MENACE.

CHILDREN STARVED OF lODINE. All over tho world doctors meet cases of children who arc not so well developed or bright as they should be, and who have a too conspicuous swelling where a very useful but inconspicuous little gland should ho in the tront of the necK. This swelling it called a goitre, and tho little gland which is too large is called the thyroid. Its healthy activity is essential for physical and mental development. Goitre is less common in England than, for instance, in Switzerland, where it is notorious, and tho traveller pocs it at every turn, states Dr. C. W. Salcebv in tho London "Daily Chronicle.'' Also in the inland parts of America it is exceedingly common. But we ourselves, not least in London, have lar too much of it. When we look at it more closely we find that the enlarged thyroid is not. working properly. It cannot make the priceless stuff which it should prepare from the food and add to the blood, for the healthv growth of all parts of tho body. Studied under the microscope, the gland looks as if it had tried to do its best, but had broken down in the attempt. The surgeons and the physicians have dono their best, and the bacteriologists have hunted in vain for a germ; but the real reason why the thyroid fails and degenerates has only now been found. We have known for at least a quarter of a century that the marvellous secretion of the thyroid, or which such infinitesimal quantities do such wonders for us, contains iodine. Plainly, therefore, iodine jnjist be supplied in the food, and, in a really healthy diet, without our paying any special attention to the subject, that is dune. For instance, though we seldom or never mention it, there is iodine in railki or none of us would be here. It occurred to a student in America, three or four years ago, to try the effect of adding minute traces of iodine to tlie water in which a vast number of young lish were being reared—all

ifflicted -nith After a little while tlid disease vanished. The lesson '.'from the fish hatchery poemerl too significant to be ignored.. Goitre is exceedingly '.common among schoolchildren in the Middle "West. -A test was made, and a large group of «;is supplied with small quantities of iodine for a vc-.ry fqw weeks' in the year. Th<V result was in marked con trast to those who-did not receive it.

Wo arc entitled to say that, iodine is a specific preventive of goitre, and that all the htmdreds of thousands of enlarged and degenerate young thyroid dands now' in the world, with such deplorable consequences to tl\cir possessors, 1-ave been starved of iodine. Swiss 'children in 1 are© numbers have l>ceii supplied with iodine—dt can easily !>a included in chocolate tablets or* supplied in many 'other wavs—and goitre disappears. There should never be another case in the world., \\eneod a careful new survey of our children. Then we must use iodine, according to the Swiss aiid American experience, bv adding it .in rmre and suitable form to our children's food, bo that they may share in the .blessings of this profound and simple discovery. Let us talk less about the "nraltiplica7 tion of the unfit'' and look more to those factors of nutrition, such as this, without which any of us would' himself be a dwarfish idiot. During the International Medical Congress in London in 1913. I drew attention to the risks of over-purified and preserved food. Now, it seems that our modern dietary, including tabl». salt, is so "pure" that it is no longer natural, and Jacks the precious element, iodine,, which it naturally contains. The defect muss be mad 4 good. i