THE PURPOSE of this paper is to indicate which facts in the history and examination of a patient aid in the differential diagnosis of nontoxic nodular goiter. The nodules may be involutionary, neo-plastic or, more rarely, sites of thyroiditis. From July 1935 to July 1941, 242 patients with nontoxic nodular goiter were seen in the University of California's thyroid clinic. Sufficient data, follow-up observations and pathologic specimens were available to permit consideration of 114 cases in this study. Gross specimens and histologic sections of the glands were studied, and, with these data as a base line, an attempt was made to correlate the clinical features with the pathologic diagnosis of this condition. —The investigations of Marine1 seem to have established that involutionary nodules in the thyroid gland are formed by cyclic hyperplasia and involution. This waxing and waning of local acinar activity and of colloid storage is
PATHOLOGIC CLASSIFICATION