THYROID DEGENERATION

Evening Star, Issue 19616, 23 July 1927, Page 6

THYROID DEGENERATION

ALARMING GOITRE REPORT [Pee United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, July 22. In a report presented to the Canter* bury Education Board Dr Eleanor linker M/Laglen, the Education Department's health inspector, stated that on a recent visit to Christchurch Girls’ High School she found goitre in 89 per cent, of the girls, and in 7<9 per cent, of the cases tho goitre was plainly visible. In only a few cases had any attempt been made at treatment. The doctor acids: “The tragedy of this apathy lies in tho fact that each succeeding generation will get worse. In 200 years Canterbury will he like Switzerland, where they have thousands of Cretin imbeciles due to thyroid degeneration through successive generations.” Tho doctor insists that prevention is simple by the use of iodised salt, and that this should bo used not only by the child from infancy, but by the mother before the birth of the child. She says that already in Christchurch a number of babies have been born with goitre, and further, that, broadly speaking, all Now Zealand, except Taranaki and Auckland provinces north of Mercer, is goitre-bearing in varying degrees.