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DCREATED:20130619T013422Z
DTSTART:20120516T010000Z
DTEND:20120516T023000Z
PRIORITY:0
SUMMARY:A Battle for Honesty and Safety in Medicine:  Medical men fight back at patent 'cures' for Goitre in New Zealand in the twentieth century, presented by Claire Le Couteur
DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:New Zealand has had a problem with endemic goitre that pre-dates European settlement. Endemic or =91simple=92 goitre is caused by a lack of iodine in the diet but in the first quarter of the twentieth century scientists had not proven it definitively. This was in part due to the lack of suitable laboratory techniques to measure iodine in the environment or the diet. Professor Sir Charles Hercus of the Otago Medical School carried out a wideranging study for over twenty years into the cause and prevention of goitre in New Zealand. He encouraged the introduction of iodised salt into New Zealand, but because it took more than ten years to get the level of iodisation correct (and to get the public to use it) patent medicine vendors vied to sell their =91goitre cures=92 to a worried public. Some of these medicines were fraudulent and others were dangerous. In this talk I will describe some of the trials and tribulations that Hercus and the Health Department faced in preventing the promotion of these =91cures=92.=0D=0A=0D=0ACLAIRE LE COUTEUR is a PhD candidate in the History Department at UC. Previously she studied science at the University of Otago and has worked in scientific research in several areas including biochemistry, pharmacology, biotechnology of plants, food science=0D=0Aand tussock grasslands. She has also taught secondary school science. She is a freelance science writer and editor, and is currently a volunteer at the Cotter Medical History Trust where she is cataloguing their collection of proprietary medicines.=0D=0A=0D=0APlease check back on the Events Calendar on the day of the event to ensure the event is still being held. If the event has been cancelled, it will no longer appear.=0D=0A
LOCATION:Room 311, History building
CLASS:PUBLIC
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