18 GOITRE CURABLE?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2709, 18 March 1924, Page 2

18 GOITRE CURABLE?

GOITRE, unfortunately is a complaint not by any means uncommon in New Zealand, and some people say that- it is on the increase. The question is not without interest in this district, so the following letter which was publsked in lie “Lyttelton Times” may be of interest: — “I notice that the question of the

prevalence of goitre in New Zealand lias been discussed by the Medical Association in Auckland. 1 should like to state my personal experience of goitre. It has been prevalent in my family for many years. About fifty years ago my mother noticed symptoms in myself and brother. She obtained a mix? ture of lard and iodine and insisted upon this being rubbed in twice a day. The result was (bat my brother and T lost all appearance of goitre and T am now over seventy years, and no reappearance of the complaint. I might mention that I had a sister who developed goitre but owing to her absence from home her mother could not insist upon her using the remedy. The consequence was that she bad to undergo an operation for its removal, under which she died. My grandchildren have more or less developed symptoms, but owing to this treatment the disease has been checked and made no progress. It is very difficult to get girls to use this remedy owing to the discolouration. 1 have told numbers of people of this remedy and where consistently used it has in all cases been successful. There is no doubt that this disease is obtaining a great hold in New Zealand, but if taken in time it can he easily cured.”

“ACCORDING to the evidence in the Press,” writes a Christchurch correspondent, “it only needs the presence of sea water in our drinking water to reduce the incidence or percentage of goitre in our school children, from 60 at Woolston to 14 at Heathcote. If this is the case it would appear to be quite a simple matter to effect an improvement. The inference is that if we could convey sea water to the reservoirs in the same proportion as it is mixed with the water at Heathcote we could reduce goitre to 14 per cent. 1 will leave it to experts to tell us flow this could be done. It would cost something, but GO *iier cent, goitrous children will cost- us a deal more in the long run.”