314 Hairless Pig Malady. I 
the young were born dead and hairless or if alive when born hair- 
less, died in afew hours. Asit was known to us that this malady 
existed to. a serious extent in certain parts of the northwest- 
ern part of this country and also occurred in the state of Wiscon- 
sin, our attention was directed to the solution of its cause and 
remedy. After we were well along in the solution of the problem 
a paper by Smith? appeared from the Montana Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station. Smith had reached the conclusion, which our 
data also support; namely, that the malady was associated with a 
hyperplasia of the thyroid gland and could be corrected by the 
use of iodine. He further concluded that the malady was due 
to a deficiency of iodine in the feed consumed by the brood sows 
in that locality and believed that if more iodine were fed preg- 
nant animals over large sections of this continent, especially dur- 
ing the winter months, the young that they produced would be 
more healthy and more vigorous and the large number of weak 
and defective young animals that are produced annually would 
be greatly reduced. This last conclusion by Smith is probably 
open to question, because of the fact that of the vast numbers of 
farm animals born yearly, but a relatively small proportion are 
afflicted with those weaknesses that result fatally from a faulty 
thyroid metabolism and low iodine supply. 
Supply of Iodine in Feeds. 
The work of Forbes’ and his associates, and that of Bohn‘ in 
our own laboratory, show that feeds from all parts of the country 
are extremely low in their iodine content and with the. methods 
available for its quantitative determination no distinction as to 
the iodine content of feeds from different localities could be made. 
It may be a fact that the iodine content of feeds from different 
regions is very similar, but it is also entirely possible that our 
analytical methods are still too crude to make the distinctions 
which may really exist. But while it is true that the iodine con- 
tent of feeds by the present analytical methods is recorded from 
2 Smith, G. E., J. Biol. Chem., 1917, xxix, 215. 
3 Forbes, E. B., and Beegle, F. M., Ohio Agric. Exp. Station, Bull. 299, 
1916. 
4 Bohn, R. M., J. Biol. Chem., 1916-17, xxviii, 375. 
