592 
tainous districts. Soon after our return 
from the continent; we visited Mon- 
mouth; and, to my astonishment, I saw 
that a great number of the country peo-' 
ple who attended the market, had goitres 
of a monstrous size, that rivalled the 
goitres of the Alps. Many of the people 
thus affected with goitres came from the 
forest of Dean, which is table-land, co- 
vered with sandstone strata of the coal 
formation, and the limestone on which 
they rest, is at too great a depth to affect 
the water. 
One fact must be generally admitted, 
viz. that it is the inhabitants of moun- 
tainous or hilly countries who are prin- 
cipally affected with goitres, for they 
rarely or ever seeur among the natives 
of low or level countries, at a distance 
from the mountains. But we cannot 
ascribe the existence of goitres to the 
action of carbonate of lime alone, as the 
natives of mountainous districts are some- 
times affected with goitres on siliceous, 
as well as on calcareous soils. 
Were I to hazard a conjecture on the 
subject, it would be that goitres are pro- 
duced by almost any kind of mineral 
matter, finely comminuted and suspend- 
ed in water. We are scarcely aware of 
the extreme degree of minuteness to 
which the particles of mineral matter 
may be reduced by continued falls of 
water; in this state the mineral matter 
may afterwards remain chemically or 
mechanically suspended in the water, 
without affecting its transparency. The 
extreme minuteness of the particles 
may enable them to pass into the vascular 
system, and ultimately occasion obstruc- 
tions in the smaller vessels. 
An English gentleman at Geneva told 
me, that his children began to be affect- 
ed with goitrous swellings after a few 
months’ residence in that city, and the 
physician who attended them, ordered 
the water which they drank to be boiled, 
and remain to deposit its earthy contents. 
By following this advice, the swellings 
were removed; buf, when the child- 
ren went afterwards to Lausanne, the 
servants neglected to boil the water, and 
the goitrous appearances returned, but 
they were again removed by boiling the 
water as before, 
With respect to eretinism, the cause 
stems distinct from that which produces 
goitres; all cretins have not goitres, 
neither are all who have the external 
appearance of cretins deficient in intel- 
lect. Cretinism, when once generated, 
appears to be hereditary. The guide who 
conducted us from Villard Goitrou to a 
coal mine-in the vicinity, was, in appear- 
Bakewell’s Travels in the Tarentaise, Sc. 
ance, a dwarfish boy of about fourteen 
years of age, broad shouldered, with a 
flat, frog-shaped head and face, and an 
expression of countenance which indi- 
cated a mixture of cunning and intelli- 
gence. He was evidently of the race of 
the cretins, though he seemed ho way 
wanting in sense. A little child of the 
same race was running after him; Fsaid, 
“That is your younger brother, I sup- 
pose?” He replied, “ Pardon, Monsieur, 
c’est mon fils.” I could scarcely believe 
he was serious ; bat on further enquiry, 
we learned that our dwarfish guide was 
thirty years ofage; he had been married 
eight years, and the child who followed 
us was seven years old. He bore a 
strong resemblance to his father. 
To return from this digression: the 
persons round our char at Villard Goi- 
trou, presented the most melancholy pic- 
ture of the physical degradation of our 
species I had ever bebeld, united with 
an extreme degree of poverty and’ des- 
titution, equalled only by that of the 
poorest wretches in Ireland, with goitres 
so large, as to hear a considerable pro- 
portion to their dwarfish bodies; with 
heads, features, and forms scarcely’ bu- 
man, many of them unable to speak, but 
expressing their wants by grating nvises 
and uncouth sigus ; they exhibited all the 
horrors of deformity, combined with idi- 
ocy and extreme wretchedness. It was 
impossible not to feel compassion for be- 
ings sodegraded by nature, whose misery 
was unmerited by any moral crime. It is, 
however, some consolation to believe 
that they are not sensible of their degra- 
dation, as they appear cheerful, and are 
said to evince much affection towards 
those from whom they receive kindnéss. 
AGRICULTURE. 
Tn most part of Savoy, the land is di- 
vided into very small farms,-and is oc- 
cupied by the proprietors or paysans, 
who live in an exceedingly frugal man- 
ner, and cultivate the ground with the 
assitance of their wives and ‘children; 
for in Savoy, as in many other parts of 
Europe, the women do nearly as'much 
field labour as the men. 
In the neighbourhood of towns, the 
land is chiefly the property of sthe rich, 
who let it on certain conditions, which 
derive their origin from feudal institu- 
tions, and were formerly prevalent ail 
over Europe, and have noi entirely 
ceased in some parts of Great Britain. 
The lands belonging to the monas- 
teries were sold during the French Re- 
volution, when Savoy was annexed to 
France. The gradual abolition of the 
monasteries had been begun by the old 
government 
