History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Medical Geography of Illinois 23Chatin, in 1850, demonstrated that there was a definite relationship betweensuch goiter regions and an inadequate amount of iodine in the soilfor the normal physiology of the body. 16 Later it was shown that this wasalso true not only for humans but for many lower animals, including fish.This fact and later discoveries furnished a chemical basis for the functionof the thyroid gland. It also explained satisfactorily the regional distributionof goiter areas, since these were found to be deficient in iodine— theelement essential for the proper functioning of this gland.A century or more ago, the Illini country was recognized as a goiter regionfrom the relatively common occurrence of "enlarged necks," both inearly settlers and in the indigenous natives. Marine 17 , in 1905, extendedthe problem to include lower animals and fish, making itpossible therebyto investigate goiter experimentally. By observation and controlled methodsit was soon found that the goiter area in the central west covered arelatively large territory adjacent to the Great Lakes, especially in Illinois,Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.Within the last generation much has been accomplished in a preventiveway throughout goiter regions by an adequate control of the individualintake of iodine by the general use of iodized salt in the diet. A careful studyof regionalismin this disease together with other related observations hasfurnished a striking example of the significance of this factor in medicine.Fluorosis: A few reports, remote in time and place, certify that certainpeoples have been known to have had blackened or dark teeth. Such regionswere located about the Mediterranean Sea or near volcanoes. During thepast century it was observed that in certain definite localities in this andother continents, the teeth of many inhabitants acquired a dark brownishmottling associated with lamination. Later it was noted that such discoloredteeth, especially in children, were resistant to caries. Within recentyears the condition has become a well recognized regional disease.More careful observations revealed that the condition was associatedwith and dependent upon the metabolism in the body of fluorine and itscompounds. The term fluorosis was applied to the disease, a term whichnow has come into general use in both medicine and dentistry. Then twoadditional basic facts were discovered: first, that limited territories throughoutthe world revealed relatively excessive amounts of fluorine in the water,soil and foods, whereas other regions were relatively deficient in this element;second, that "the mottled enamel" regions corresponded closely withthose containing the relatively large amounts of fluorine.As observations proceeded, it became necessary to develop chemical" Krumbhaar, E. B.: Pathology, N. Y., P. B. Hoeber, Inc., 1937.17Marine, D.: Further Observations and Experiments on Goiter in Brook Trout,/. Exper. Med. i^'.'jo, 1914.