446 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



In considering the prevalence of goiter in the villages of Gilgit the villages are dealt with in order, 

 from that highest on the water supply to that lowest (see sketch of water supply). The figures are given 

 in the following table: 



It is quite clear that McCarrison has observed conditions which are remarkably 

 comparable to the conditions found in the Craig Brook hatchery where we originally 

 found the increase of the disease from above downward in the ponds, with absence of 

 the disease in the two uppermost ponds fed with individual spring water supply 

 (fig. 78, p. 429) ; also to the conditions which we have described at Cold Spring Harbor. 



The age incidence of visible manifestations of this disease including both red floors 

 and tumors affords material for a comparison of the incidence of the disease as we have 

 observed it in fish and that of goiter in the inhabitants of the villages of Chitral and 

 Gilgit Valleys, as recorded by McCarrison, as well as that of goiter in school children 

 as given by Schittenhelm and Weichardt. McCarrison examined 646 inhabitants of 

 the villages of Chitral, of which 277 were children under 15, and 369 adults. At 5 

 years of age male children showed 40 per cent, female 22 per cent. The incidence of 

 the disease rises rapidly to 15 years where the males' showed 74 per cent, females 59^ 

 per cent. From this age it rapidly fell in both cases so that at 25 years of age males 

 showed 40 per cent, females 24 per cent. From 25 years on, the incidence in females 

 again rose, until the age of 45 when 62 per cent were affected, the males having steadily 

 fallen to 23 per cent at the same age period. In Gilgit the total population examined 

 was 1,533, f which 705 were children under 15 years and 828 adults. The incidence 

 for males and females varies slightly. At 5 years of age 2 per cent of the males and 

 at 1 5 years of age 1 6 per cent of the males and 20 per cent of the females were affected. 

 In this locality the incidence steadily rose to 40 years of age when 45 percent of the 

 males and 36 per cent of the females were affected. McCarrison states that in Chitral 

 23 per cent of children under i year of age who are still being suckled suffer from this 

 disease in the village of Awi, and in another village, Miragram, the percentage figure 

 was even higher than this, reaching 61.5 per cent. The mothers had in all cases been 

 the subject of the disease and frequently the fathers also. What proportion of these 

 cases were congenital and what acquired he was unable to determine. 



Schittenhelm and Weichardt state that in a typical goitrous community in Bavaria 

 the incidence of goiter as expressed by demonstrable enlargement of the thyroid is, 

 from 2 to 6 years of age, 42 per cent; 6 to 9, 72.4 per cent; 9 to 13, 89.6 per cent; and 



