CHEMISTRY OF GOITER 489 



per gram, or a total of 6.6 mg. of iodin per gland. Both 

 of the last-named cities are in districts where goiter is not 

 endemic. The thyroids of young children show the same 

 relative paucity of iodin in goitrous districts, as compared 

 with non-goitrous districts. Wells 1 found that the thyroids 

 throughout the United States contain even larger amounts of 

 iodin than the Berlin glands, averaging 10 to 12 mg. per gland, 

 agreeing with the fact that goiter is comparatively rare in this 

 country. 2 Monery 3 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 frequency 

 of goiter in districts in which they live. Oswald, and also 

 Aeschbacher, 4 however, state that normal thyroids in goitrous dis- 

 tricts contain more iodin than thyroids from goiter-free districts. 

 Chemical analyses of goiters have given extremely variable 

 results, and as yet have not led to any satisfactory explanation 

 of the etiology of this condition. Baumann found that 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. How- 

 ever, 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 con- 

 tained 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. In an adeno- 

 matous goiter the new-growth was found to contain 1.98 mg. 

 of iodin per gram, while 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. It would seem that in 

 some cases of goiter hyperplastic changes are required to bring 

 the amount of iodiu up to normal, perhaps because of a scarcity 

 of iodin in the food or a defective assimilation. In support of 

 this is the fact that Bruns found that hyperplastic goiters are the 

 form most successfully treated by administration of thyroiodin. 

 Colloid goiters possibly depend upon a deficiency in absorption 

 of the colloid from the follicles, or possibly upon a reduced 

 utilization of the thyroid secretion by the body, although we 

 have no evidence for this. 



1 Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1897 (29), 897. 



2 It is probable, in view of the higher results obtained by Wells and by 

 Oswald, that the results of Baumann and of Monery are somewhat too low. 



3 Jour. Pharm. et Chim., 1904 (95), 288. 



4 Mitt. a. d. Grenzgeb. Med. u. Chir., 1905 (15), 269. 



