David Marine and the Problem of Goiter

Abstract

David Marine is one of those scientists now largely remembered for the outcome of a single trial rather than for a lifetime of critical, painstaking studies—in his case of the functioning and regulation of the thyroid gland. He is remembered for his trial, with O. P. Kimball as his assistant, of the effect of giving iodide to a large group of schoolgirls in Ohio from 1917 to 1922 and for showing that this greatly reduced their development of goiter (1). It required perseverance to find a school board that would permit such a trial when others had considered it dangerous and irresponsible.