ENDEMIC GOITER AND IODINE CONTENT OF WATER, MILK AND PASTURE

In a recent bulletin of the Medical Research Council of Great Britain appears the report¹ of investigations directed toward a possible explanation of the remarkable differences in the incidence of thyroid enlargement among girls of school age in English counties. Two districts were selected for study which were known to exhibit differences in the frequency of occurrence of goiter. Certain rural areas of the counties of Somerset and Suffolk were chosen. Rural schools in which the average attendance varied from about forty to 150 children were inspected. It was considered likely that schools of such size would be found in villages in which probably only one or two farmers provided the main part of the milk supply. Such restriction was deemed necessary because of agreement that milk samples from not more than two farms in the neighborhood of any rural school could be analyzed. The survey was confined to