The possibility and efficiency of the practical application of the administration of iodin for the prevention of goiter as a public health measure were definitely established by Marine and Kimball in their classical experiment in the public schools of Akron, Ohio, in 1917. As the result of that study, the application of this principle of goiter prevention has been extended to various endemic goiter districts in this country and abroad, so that today children in various parts of the world are being benefited by prophylactic treatment, and the incidence of goiter is by so much diminishing.
For a practical consideration of the problems of goiter, we may consider three abnormal states of the thyroid gland—hypothyroidism, malignancy and hyperthyroidism.
HYPOTHYROIDISM (SIMPLE GOITER)
The problems presented by simple goiter are comparatively easy of solution.
—I have already referred to the possibility and duty of preventing the incidence of simple goiter