The Days of a Man Cigio 



In and about Aosta the goitrous cretin has been for centuries 

 an object of charity. The idiot has received generous support, 

 while the poor farmer or laborer with brains and no goiter has 

 had the severest of struggles. In the competitions of life a 

 premium has thus been placed on imbecility and disease. 

 Cretin has mated with the cretin, goiter with goiter, and charity 

 and religion have presided over the union. The result is that 

 idiocy is multiplied and intensified. The cretin of Aosta has 

 been developed as a new species of man. In fair weather the 

 roads about the city are lined with these awful paupers — 

 human beings with less intelligence than the goose, with less 

 decency than the pig. The asylum for cretins in Aosta is a 

 veritable chamber of horrors. . . . 



A large proportion of the cretins who will be born in the next 

 generation will undoubtedly be offsprings of cretin parents. 

 It is strange that self-interest does not lead the people of Aosta 

 to place their cretins under such restrictions as to prevent their 

 marriage. True charity would give them not less helpful care, 

 but guarantee that each individual cretin should be the last of 

 his generation. 



Cause of In his admirable volume, "The Valley of Aosta," 

 Felice Ferrero writes: 



Cretinism is an old plague in the Alps. It is said to have been 

 known in ancient times, and was described at length in the 

 seventeenth century; but its cause is almost as much of a 

 mystery as in centuries past. The only certain data about it 

 are the following: that cretinism belongs exclusively to moun- 

 tainous districts, that it is connected with goiter . . . that it is 

 transmitted by heredity. Beyond this, not much is to be 

 gathered. 



I had visited Aosta in 1881, 1883, and 1890, verify- 

 ing in full the account of Ferrero and an earlier one 

 of Whymper. Each time I saw cretins on the streets 

 and on all neighboring roads. Everywhere in evi- 

 dence were those feeble little people with uncanny 

 voices, silly faces, and sickening smiles, incapable of 

 taking care of themselves and all disfigured by the 



n 314 3 



cretinism 



