GOITRE AND ITS CAUSE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 36, 11 February 1926, Page 11

GOITRE AND ITS CAUSE

) ♦ AN INTERESTING SUGGESTION ( EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER IN EGYPT (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. A suggestion as to the cause of goitre and a theory as to its cure are contained in a letter published in the "New Zealand Herald" from Mr.'Oswald Coates. He writes:— "The Health Department is report: ed as stating that whatever may bo the ultimate cause of goitre, the immediate cause of the enlargement is iodine deficiency. I would like to ask how the Department would explain the following facts: A son of mine, while wo resided in Christchurch, developed a plainly visible goitre and still had it in increased size when he joined the Wellington Mounted Rifles and went with the Main Body to Egypt, Gallipoli, and' Palestine, with the result that in Egypt the goitre decreased in size and disappeared entirely while he was on the desert in Palestine. "It is well known by all who have lived in Egypt or on the desert for a lengthened period that all vegetables grown there are entirely wanting, in iron, as the desert sand does not contain, it. I have reason to believe that in niy son's case, and in many others, the immediate cause of goitre was the drinking of very cold artesian well water, and that the cure in his ease was the result of an absence of iron in his food. This matter appears to be worthy of investigation. A MEDICAL OPINION. This letter was referred to Dr. T. J. Hughes, Medical Officer of Health. He concurred in the opinion that the drinking of very cold artesian well water may have been responsible for the development of goitre, as stated, as the disease' was prevalent in places where the water supply had its source in sriowy regions. This theory was borne out by the large number of cases of goitre to be found in Christchurch. It could not be held,- however, that this was the principal cause of goitre, for a chemical analysis of water in goitrous regions had failed to show any relation between dissolved salts and goitre; the disease had been found endemic in regions of both hard and soft water. The use of hard water seeped to favour the development of goitre, but was not the cause. Dr. Hughes described some interesting, experiments carried out in this connection some years ago by Dr. MacHarrison in New South Wales. He confined his observations to a village in which goitre was extremely prevalent and where the water supply was derived entirely from tank*. He carried out tests which indicated that the disease ■was due to bacteria which he found in deposit at the bottom of the tanks. When iodine was added to the _ water there was a marked decrease in the disease. An experiment on the same lines was carried out in a stream in a certain part of which fish were found to be affected, with goitre. It was ascertained that a sewage found its way into the stream, and when the fish wero moved to a portion of the Stream above the source of the infection thoy recovered. , USE OF lODINE. "The work carried on in New Zealand by Dr. Hereus seems to show that there is les goitre in districts where iodine content is abundant," continued Dr. Hughes. "lodine has always been looked upon as the most effective measure of treatment for simple goitre, and the results in New Zealand and elsewhere have demonstrated beyond doubt that this treatment is the correct measure of treatment for simple goitre, acts as a cure, inferentially its absence is important in contributing the cause. The disease has also been attributed to presence of iron pyrites in drinking water, but the results of investigation do not point to the presence of iron as a contributing factor, as suggested by Mr. Coates. "It is a well-known fact that the person who moves from a goitrous to a non-goitrous area is frequently cured of the disease. A change in the water supply has also furnished the same reBults. I should therefore be inclined to think that in the ease Ql question the change of drinking water and diet generally was responsible, for the disappearance of the trouble."