The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1923-11-15

tr;cts were mapped out and studied
20 determine wherein they dlffered
from relatively goiter free districts;
4 was observed that most, but by
mn means all of the goiter dlstricts
were situated in high plateauX ana
~var;ous rocks and ores were lndicted
as the cause OF goiter.
That the disease was water born
was early suspected and many in
stances were recorded where the d.
sease practically disappeared wnen a
new water supply suppianteo .ne oiu.
Tt was also observed tnat shsre
would be veritable outbreaks OF the
diseae with progressions ana regres-
sions in the same place.
That boiling the water would pre-
vent the disease, and that the resi-
dunn of filtered goiter water when
added to good water would cause
goiter.
with the advent of the twentieth
century it was noticed that the feed
ing of thyroid gland substance would
cure most of the golfers and cause
a wonderful change in cretins, little
people dwarfed and deformed by goi-
tiers from childhood.
The thyroid gland was studied and
found to contain iodine In very COM
plex combination; in 1916 =. G. Ken
dali definitely determined this iodine
combination and reduced it to chem
'ical formula; before this work was
completed, and it took three years to
Complete, iodine was Used expert
mentally to cure goiter in man and
animals.
The true cause of goiter is as yet
unknown but it is demonstrated that
with thyroid saturated with iodine
EARLY in life the incidence of goiter
is practically nil.
The prevention of Goiter.
Whether Washington water con-
tains too little iodine to properly
saturate the thyroid or whether the
water contains some germ causing
goiter, or whether the water contains
element which neutralize normal
supply of iodine is not definitely
known, it is known however that we
are in the "Goiter Belt" of the United
States, and it is known that by giving
iodine in minute doses at infrequent
intervals simple goiter can be pre-
vented.
This has been worked out in the
schools in a number of our cities
notably Akron, Ohio where three
grains of sodium iodine were given
in the drinking water once a day for
weeks each spring and fall.
This procedure, used three years
caused a 60 per cent reduction In
the golfers already present and in
none of the cases using the method
did goiter develope in any normal
girl.
Kimball in commenting on these re-
suits said From our experience at
Akron, we know that if girls thy
roid is kept saturated with iodine
during the years of adolescence, a
goiter will not develope; and when
we remember that the storage cap
acity of the normal thyroid is approx
imately three fourths of one grain of
iodine, we appreciate that a small
fraction of grain of iodine at week
ly intervals is sufficient to assure
the full normal iodine content of the
gland"
This method was then employed
with slight modification in Switzer-
land where the same success was
recorded.
Many more American cities have
adopted the method and it has now
been used for nearly ten years.
The method in vogue today con-
sists in giving school girls between
the ages of IL and 16 years, q minute
dose of iodine Incorporated in a
chocolate tablet once week for az
weeks per year.
Since girls are six times as suscep
tible as boys, the iodine is given t.
the boys only when goiter shows {;
sign Of developing.
The method has been used in man,
thousands Of cases and has beef
found harmless.
The Washington State Board o
Health has inaugurated a campaigl
of goiter prevention this fall an,
the parents of Kennewick will be of