29(j ACCOUNT OF CRETINISM. 



observed in Chinese Tartary by Sir George Staunton, in a 

 jxart of that country much resembling Switzerland and Sa- 

 Appcamnce of voy in its alpine appearance. The enlargement of the thy- 

 cretws. ro - l( j gjanJ^ called goitre, is the most striking feature in the 



unsightly aspect of a cretin ; but this is not a constant at- 

 tendant. His head also is deformed, his stature diminutive, 

 His complexion sickly, his countenance vacant and destitute 

 of meaning, his lips and eye-lids coarse and prominent, his 

 skin wrinkled and pendulous, his muscles loose and flabby. 

 The qualities of his mind correspond to the deranged state 

 of the body which it inhabits ; and cretinism prevails in all 

 the intermediate degrees, from excessive stupidity to com- 

 plete fatuity. 

 Fourexamin- At a small village, not far distant from Martigny, I exa- 

 mined four cretins. One lad, twelve years old, could speak 

 - a few words; he was of a weak and feeble frame, silly, but 

 had no goitre. Another boy, nine years old, was deaf and 

 dumb, idiotic, with no goitre, the only child of his mother, 

 who has a large goitre which affects her respiration and her 

 voice, though in other respects she is intelligent and well 

 formed, and the father enjoys good health ; they are not 

 natives of this place. I saw a family in which all the chil- 

 dren were cretins ; the eldest died a year ago, a miserable 

 object; the second, a girl, twelve years old, is deaf, and 

 dumb, and cross eyed, and has a monstrous goitre, ivith 

 just intelligence enough to comprehend a few natural signs; 

 the third is a boy six years old, small and feeble, abdomen 

 enlarged, no goitre, very feeble in mind and body, not en- 

 tirely deficient in nnderstauding; the mother had a mode- 

 rate sized goitre, but was quite free from any mental affec- 

 tion ; the father neither goitrous nor stupid, but of a delicate 

 constitution. 

 Cretinism and There ts no necessary connection between goitre and cre- 

 bfonclioctle tinism, notwithstanding the assertions and ingenious rea- 

 ttonnectedT' 1 ^ 60» ,n g adduced by Fodere. It is probable, the one has been 

 assumed as the cause of the other, from the enlargement of 

 the thyroid gland being a frequent occurrence in cretins ; 

 and as it forcibly strikes the observer from the deformity it 

 occasions, this strong impression may have converted an ac- 

 cidental, though frequent occurrence, into a general and 



utceflsary 



