In most European countries the geographical distribution of simple goiter is known from the number of men who are rejected on this account for military service(1,2). There are no similar figures for Britain but what is known about its probable incidence has been discussed by Hirsch(2) and by Berry(3) and in a more recent paper, where it was also shown that there was a geographical distribution of the deaths from “exophthalmic goiter” as recorded in the Registrar General's reports(5). There were still many gaps in our knowledge, especially as regards simple goiter, but there appeared to be some tendency for deaths from “exophthalmic goiter” to be more frequent in areas where goiter was endemic, thought this was contrary to the evidence of most parts of the world where goiter was seriously endemic.