PREVALENCE OF GOITRE.

Taihape Daily Times, 2 September 1919, Page 5

PREVALENCE OF GOITRE.

: o. .. .''''''''''''’°).''‘''‘' = so CAUSE-‘FOR AILARM. " A query put h_y a pressman recently _ to a medical man with an extensive practice. in Auckland withregard to the prevalence or otherwise lof goitrev among young girls, led to some rather. interesting observations. Simple goitre' was not, in his opinion, more prevalenfi than it was, say, ten years ago. Ceru. tainly he had not found any increase in the number of cases of-late. The fact. was that more‘att‘e‘ntion was devoted to: it now, and more publicity given,_ and this led to the impression that: there was an increase ‘in"‘the. actual! number‘ -of‘ ' cases. . Conditions . which} were n,_o.w known to be due to‘ the ex? cessive secretion of the thyroid gland n*ithout"7obl”vious cnl»a.rge‘ment, such as many cases of tachycardia, that was tiumultuolisi beating of the heart, ivera now -labzellcdgas goiterous sy'mpt_oms.; So f;n'_ as his experience" We‘lit,"'ther<3' was no cause for alarm, and many of the so-called cases of goitre might possibly arise from strong emotion, anxiety, or strain, and similarly, might disappear with the removal of the cause of anxiety or strain. Fright, p anxiety, strain, or strong emotion, he continued, was -one of the factors in‘ determining the appearance of the . trouble. and this might account for the al)]‘»;n'mt increase in -uiopthalmic goitrc. The war, for instance, had produced many cases of neurasthenia, ac- .

comp{lnied by disordered ac’ci=o-n of the heart, the symptoms of which were very like those of early cases of'lexopthalmic goitre. With regglrd to its prevalence among girls, he would not like to say that it was worse now than. say, ten years ago. He would ad-M mit, ho'wovel:, that given‘ a. -girl who was predisposed to the trouble long hours of study and badly ventilated rooms might have -a tendency to cause the trouble to develop. ‘The better ‘the hygienic conditions, and the better ventilated the schools, the less chance there was, of course, against development of disease in cases such as that! mentione<l_ ’