ACCOUNT OF CRETINISM. <2£7 



necessary cause. Cretinism is frequently observed without 



any affection of the thyroid gland, and that gland is often 



very much enlarged without any affection of the intellectual 



faculties. There seems to he some similarity between ere- Some similarity 



tinism and rickets, as thev both take place in infancy, are between creti- 

 .11 .i!*\i /*Ti i niton & rickets. 



both characterized by feebleness ot body, and sooner or 



later by feebleness of mind, and they both affect males and 

 females equally; but there is no sort of connection between 

 persons afflicted with bronchocele in England, and with Bronchocele. 

 rickets. For although it might be granted, that there is 

 some delicacy of frame in females about the period of pu- 

 bescence when bronchocele usually occurs, yet neither irre- 

 gular formation of the bones, nor weakness of the intellectual 

 powers, are common symptoms attending bronchocele in 

 Britain. 



To what peculiarities then, in the physical constitution What are the 

 of certain districts, are we to ascribe the production of this causes of creti* 

 singular malady? Saussure's description of the Valais is 

 exceedingly precise and accurate, and the causes which he 

 has aleged appear sufficient to account for the phenomena. 

 The vallies where cretinism is most frequent, are surrounded situation 

 by very high mountains ; they are sheltered from the cur- 

 rents of air, and exposed to the direct and still more to the 

 reflected rays of the sun. The effluvia from the marshes 

 are very strong, and the atmosphere humid, close, and op- 

 pressive. All the cretins that I saw were in adjoining 

 houses, in the little village called la Batia, situate in a nar- 

 row corner of the valley, the houses being built up under 

 ledges of the rocks, and all of them very filthy, very close, 

 very hot and miserable habitations. In villages situate higher 

 up the mountains, no cretins are to be seen, and the mother 

 of one of the children told me, of her own accord, without 

 my asking the question, that her child was quite a ^lirferent 

 being when he was up iu the mountain, as she called it, for 

 a few days. 



The production of cretinism, by the bad quality of the ana « poverty. 

 air and the food, the neglect of moral education, and other 

 evils attendant upon poverty, is supported by facts so 

 pointed, that the greater number of cases in mountainous 

 districts where snow water abounds, may safely be ascribed 



to 



