OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 254, 22 July 1919, Page 3

OUR BABIES

r-V I'B'f HTGEIA.I

Published under the auspiceß of the Hoyal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Ohildrerf. "It is wiser to put up a fence at tho , top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." THE PREVALENCE OP GOITRE. Recently we gave a summary of an address by Dr. Drennan, Professor of Pathology, Otago University, on tho Prevalence of Goitre iu New Zealand. Many persons were surprisod to hear of tho widespread nature of the disease, and they are wondering what can bo done in the meantime to lessen the evil or mitigate its results. Tho following instances, taken from Br. Drennan s address, give some idea of the direction in which matters may be improved with the means to our hand,- pending further investigation and research. OBSERVATIONS IN INDIA AND AMERICA. Lieutenant-Colonel H'Carrison, of the Indian Medical Service, made observations on certain isolated hill tribes in Caßhmire. lie found that in certain villl-geß along a stream those on'the 1 ppcr reaches had a small proportion of goitres among the inhabitants, while those further down had an. increasingly large proportion. He has proved to his own satisfaction that gojtre is due to bacterial infection of the water supply. ' David Marine, of the Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, investigated a curious disease in trout. In a trout hatchery many fish developed a swelling unde? their gills, fell off in condition and colour, and frequently died. He found ( that in a series of tanKs, fed by water which passed from the first to the second, and so on dowu the scries, 'he flsh in the upper tanks were apparently healthy, wh!!o down the series their condition was progressively worse. The Bvrellings ho found to be enlarged thyroids—goitres—in nature. Sow, these fish were overcrowded and artificially fed, and Ihc tanks were not properly cleaned. By thinning tho fish, cleaning the tanks, and increasing the water flow, the goitres diminished and the fish fame back to normal. M'Carrison Quotes this to prove his bacterial contamination of water theory But a similar and more rapid improvement could be. obtained if he added iodine to the water of tho tanks. Some years ago, in certain States of America, notably Montana, North and South Dakota, Washington, Minnesota, and Western Canada, it was noted that a large percentage of sows produced hairless and otherwise defective offspring, vhich wero either born dead or died shortly after birth. This malady was curiously limited to certain parts of these States, and even to certain parts of certain ranches, and it was Inoro prevalent at somo times than others. The adult pigs were healthy, but the young were often very defective, and ail had large thyroids, with active cells, but poor in iodine content. Many things were Investigated, and among others the iodine content of the food. This was evidently slightly below that obtaining ill unaffected districts, and, acting on this, iodine was administered to the pregnant , sows. In carefully-controlled experiments it was shown that these sows produced healthy, active progeny as compared with that of tho untreated sown. An interesting fact observed by I'ener, in Chicago, is that, in tho thyroids obtained from anlmalß from all parts of America and examined in Chicago, where thyroid extract i 6 made commercially on a large scale, the size of the thyroids and the iodine contont show a seasonal tiou. OBSERVATION iff BRITAIN. This is to be contrasted 'with the findings !of Martin in Great Britain, where the thyroidß of tho animals oxamiued were unilormly small, and varied little in iodine content, which was high. ' In Britain this type of lnalde'velopinont in the unborn among animals !s practically unknown. Incidentally, except in cortain areas, goitro i(i human beingß is not general in Great Britain. raSI'ANCE IN NEW ZEALAND. Tho other day I happsmed to lie lecturing to my class on this very subject of goitre, and I referred to the American piglets. At the end of the lecture a student came up and asked mo the dose of iodine that had been given to. the sows, because recently a very similar condition had occurred amongst sheep on a farm some distanco -Bouth of Dunedin. This is the first instance I have heard in New Zealand of this deficiency disease amongst sheep, but I havo little - doubt there are other instances which will como to right, in due course. COMMENTS BY "HYGEIA." The observations mado by Lieutenant- : Oolonel M'Oarrison in India, and those by David Marine in Chicago, indicate that pollution of tho surroundings, and probably unsuitability of the food, have a ,•1 grc .t influence on the prevalence of the " disease, and therefore any betterment in ' £ conditions required for health would ' i o likely to improvfc matters. The disease among trout described by Marine reminds me of the diseased condition of the herrings kept ii> the Rothesay Aquarium, Scotland, more than 30 years ago. After a few days' sojourn in the tanks the herring "went off." their scales lost their brilliant iridescence, and became (Juu and lustreless, and finally the fish died. The tanks were cleaned out, a plentiful supjMy of clean soa water was supplied, but all was of no avail, until at length tho proper natural food of the herring was discovered. As sfltin as this was supplied the affected fish improved in condition, and there was no more disease among them. Wo shall continue our comments next week.