MARINE, DAVID

MARINE, DAVID (20 Sept. 1880-26 Nov. 1976), whose research on thyroid disorders led to salt iodization to prevent goiter, was born in Whitleysburg, Md., and attended Western Maryland College and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, receiving his medical degree in 1905 and coming to Cleveland as resident pathologist at Lakeside Hospital. He was also demonstrator of pathology (1905-06), then associate professor of experimental medicine (1915-20) at WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY School of Medicine.

Marine studied thyroid disorders at WRU's Cushing Laboratory for Experimental Medicine. Cleveland was in the nation's "goiter belt," and Marine noticed dogs' swollen necks walking to his first day of work. He studied animals, investigating the thyroid gland; his first study of goiter in humans involved pediatric patients at Lakeside Hospital Dispensary. In 1917, Marine and his student, O. P. Kimball, published "The Prevention of Simple Goiter in Man," describing the goiter-prevention program they had established in Akron, Ohio, involving 4,500 schoolgirls. The final results, published in 1920, demonstrated the efficacy of sodium iodine. Despite some opposition, the prevention of goiter through iodized salt eventually became standard public health practice.

During and immediately after WORLD WAR I, Marine was a medical officer with the U.S. Army in Europe. He returned briefly to Cleveland, then moved to Montefiore Hospital in New York City, where he spent the rest of his career until retiring in 1945 and moving to Sussex County, Del. He married Mary Elizabeth Nuttle and had 1 son, David. Marine died in Lewes, Delaware, and was buried in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Federalsburg, Maryland.


David Marine Papers, University Hospitals Archives.


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