[The role of deiodase and iodase in disturbed iodination processes in the thyroid].

Together with A. Costa of Turin, we have found adequate iodine in the food along the Northern slopes of the Alpine range in Valais, Switzerland, which has been known as a goitrous zone from time immemorial. In various statistical reports it has been pointed out that ostensibly the morbidity of goiter only regresses after the iodine added to the cooking salt is increased from 5 mg to 10 mg per kg. We see a regression of juvenile goiter only, because after puberty, 50 per cent of the Swiss population over the age of 50 have already developed goiter. We have found a goiter in rabbits and other experimental animals after feeding them cabbage and after the application of organic and inorganic sulfur compounds. After cabbage, a pre-Basedow type of goiter developed, after the application of sulfur the goiter was of a degenerative type, since in the latter case the iodase is first blocked by the thyroid and later destroyed.