PRESENT DAY MIRACLES
Some real miracles have been worked in our time.
I have witnessed one dealing with a specific form of human suffering which no longer exists but which is very real a part of my memories of childhood years.
I have seen it all come to pass in my own time, and I marvel, often, at the sheer simplicity of the treatment which brought about this change for so many long-suffering men and women.
You may not be aware of the physical condition of people having extended goiters. The neck tissues became swollen in a large sac which hang down very much like the wattle growth under the head of some fowl.
In 1922, of course, it was known what caused goiters and also how to treat them as well. But such medical knowledge , if it had reached the moutains just a few hundred miles west of Norfolk, Virginia, was not speedily accepted as being truth. I knew scores of men and women - in my memory more women than men, who had the malady and before too many years I realized I didn't see much of it any more.
Swiss scientist discovered that the thyroid gland contained iodine. In 1905 David Marine concluded that the goiter conditon could be ovecome by providing the thyroid with needed iodine. He noticed that many residents of the Great Lakes area had numeous goiters and he found the soils of the Lakes region did not contain the tiny amount of iodine needed to prevent such malfunctons. David Marine is, generally, credited with the idea of adding a touch of iodine to the ordianry persons use of table salt. In 1923 the United States and Switzerland started using iodized salt.
The mountain folk of Southwestern Virginia, in the l920's seldom, if ever, ate sea foods from the ocean. They had fish, of course, from rivers and lakes but not from salt water sources. The fact that refrigation on our railroads had only begun could have been a major influence in preventing movement of seafoods the hinterlands.
You seldom encounter goiter growths today. It is still a problem in central Africa and other remote areas. Think about the progress which has been made and be thankful goiters they been eliminated among us. Think too, of how there may well be realtively simple solutions to many of our other problems if we can bring ourselves to accept Truth when it is presented to us.
A.L.M. November 1, 2003 [c419wds]
