600 CHEMICAL PATHOLOGY OF TIN-: DICTLE.^H GLAXDS 



Mouery '•' has found for France, as Baumann did for Germany, that 

 the amount of iodin contained in the glands of normal individuals is 

 in inverse proportion to the fre(iuency of g'oiter in districts in which 

 they live. Oswald, and also Aeschbacher,^*^ however, state that normal 

 thyroids in goitrous districts contain more iodin than thyroids from 

 goiter-free districts. 



Chemical analyses of goiters have given extremely variable results, 

 which are found to depend upon the histological type of the goiter. 

 Baumann found th^t in a series of twelve cases of goiter, in which 

 the average dry weight was 32 grams, the amount of iodin in each 

 gram was but 0.09 mg., but the total amount, 2.6 mg.. was about the 

 same as in normal glands of the same goitrous district. However, 

 in two goiters large amounts of iodin were found, namely, 17.5 mg. 

 and 31.5 mg. "Wells found that the amount of iodin depended upon 

 the structure, for two hyperplastic goiters contained respectively 

 8.23 and 8.3 mg. of iodin, or about the amount normal for thyroids 

 in this country, whereas two colloid goiters contained 53.16 and 24.59 

 mg. of iodin. This is corroborated by the more extensive studies of 

 ^Marine and his co-workers, who have found the proportion of iodin 

 low in all glands showing epithelial hyperplasia, but high in colloid 

 goiters."" Administration of iodin causes a reversion of the hyper- 

 plastic to the colloid tj'pe of gland, while deprivation of iodin causes 

 hyperplasia. Presumably, therefore, during the active growth of a 

 goiter the iodin is low, but in the quiescent colloid state it is high. 

 The physiological activity of colloid or other preparations from goi- 

 ters is found to be quite the same as that from normal glands, vary- 

 ing in direct proportion to the iodin content."^^ In an adenomatous 

 goiter, in the new growth, AVells found 1.98 mg. of iodin per gram, 

 Mhile the rest of the gland contained but 0.8 mg. ; the total amount of 

 iodin was 9.26 mg., or the same quantity as found in normal glands. 

 In nine fetal adenomas ^larine and Lenhart found iodin in eight in 

 amounts averaging 0.174 mg. per gram of dry weight. However, when 

 iodin is given to persons with thyroid adenomas the tumor tissue does 

 not take up the iodin to the same extent that the normal gland tissue 

 does. 



Oswald found that colloid goiters contain a thyreoglobulin that is 

 relatively very poor in iodin; in goitrous calves the thyreoglobulin 

 contained no iodin; in human goiters it contained but 0.07 to 0.19 per 

 cent, of iodin, as against a normal proportion of 0.34 per cent. Ad- 

 ministration of iodides to a goitrous patient caused a rise in the pro- 

 portion of iodin in the colloid to 0.51 ])er cent., showing that in colloid 

 goiters in goitrous districts the thyi-eoglobuliii is probably jioor in 

 iodin because of a lack of iodin for it to unite with, and not because 



•''-'.Tour. Pliarm. ot Ciiiiii., 1004 («).■)), 2SS. 



■"'I Mitt. a. d. f)ronz<roh. Mod. u. Cliir.. ino.') (IT)), 2{]9. 



"Arch. Int. :Med., 1!)08 (1). 34!l: lOOO (.3). fiti; IflOO (4). 440. 



58 See Fonio, Mitt. Grenz. :Med. u. <liir.. 1011 (24), 123. 



