PAPERS PRESENTED AT GENERAL SESSIONS 49 



tension of information and of the application of known 

 facts to treatment and prevention. 



That deficiency of iodine in the human body is the 

 principal cause of goitre may be considered to be estab- 

 lished. That the supply in the iodine reservoir is fre- 

 quently deficient because the amount supplied thereto by 

 the drinking water and other foods is insufficient, is ac- 

 cepted. 



The reservoir supply may be exhausted by reason of 

 rapid growth in childhood and particularly during pube- 

 scence and adolescence, by reason of the demands of the 

 system during pregnancy and during certain infections 

 such as tonsillitis and pharyngitis and by reason of sev- 

 eral emotional shocks and strains. 



The active principle of the thyroid secretion, a body 

 having great powers over all physiological processes re- 

 quiring iodine thyroxin, was discovered by an American, 

 Kendall, several years ago. It is interesting that insulin 

 from the pancreas, thyroxin' from the thyroid, and 

 epinephrin from the adrenal are all American discov- 

 eries. 



The year 1923-24 witnessed a great extension of popu- 

 lar interest in goitre. A fair number of American cities 

 report goitre surveys of children in the public schools. 

 In a fair number of places, iodine in some form is given 

 children in schools. This is sometimes given as iodide 

 of soda, sometimes as iodine in the table salt. In Ro- 

 chester, New York, and Sault St. Marie, Michigan, iodine 

 is being added to the public water supply. In Switzer- 

 land, where supplying iodine is more of a government 

 function than it has been in this country, giving iodine in 

 salt has been in vogue. 



Plummer has endeavored during the year to differen- 

 tiate various types of goitre and the effect of giving 

 iodine on each. There has been the beginning of an ef- 

 fort to distinguish between the different types of thyroid 

 abnormality and to determine which will get well sponta- 

 neously; which tend to progress toward more serious con- 

 sequences which are benefited by iodine and which are, 

 or may be, harmed by it. 



