Preventative medicine now includes within its domains fields which were unheard of only a few years ago. Goiter is probably the most widespread and spectacular of the preventable diseases, so is causing much interest, especially among public health workers. The prevention of goiter means more than preserving the normal outline of the neck, but means the prevention of cretinism, iodicy and mutism. Aa adenomas and malignancies of the thyroid, aa well as Graves disease or toxic goiter usually begin as simple endemic goiter, it means also preventative surgery. Nor should the high mortality of infants with congenital goiter be forgotten.