ZOOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF DISEASE. 263 
and atypical specimen of a calf-cretin which came under 
my observation is sketched in fig. 128. This calf ex- 
hibits in a striking manner the leading features of the 
affection. For instance, its trunk only measures thirty 
centimetres in length, and the legs are five centimetres 
long: the head arrests attention on account of its 
shortness, resembling strongly the head of a pug-dog. 
Cretinism is not unknown among dogs ; the museum of 
the Royal College of Surgeons possesses an excellent 
specimen in a foetal puppy. 
The calf-cretin is of interest especially with regard 
to the undue shortness of the head and limbs, for it 
has been suggested that the pug-dogs, which are such 
favourite pets with many ladies, are cretins, and that 
by selected breeding a race of cretinous dogs has been 
produced. It has also been suggested that the short- 
legged spitze or Dachshund is possibly cretinous. This 
however is problematical ; the spitze must be a very 
old variety of dog. Dr. Blackmore showed me in the 
Salisbury museum some arm _ bones which clearly 
belonged to a dog, and they were curved, or bowed like 
the bones of a spitze ; the curves were certainly not due 
to rickety changes. These bones were obtained among 
others from excavations made in investigating the pit- 
dwellings, admirable models of which are exhibited ir 
the same museum. 
~ Dr. Parrot has made a careful study of cretinism, 
and allied diseases of the skeletons, and goes so far as 
to believe that the ancient Egyptians were acquainted 
with cretinism, and even had a cretinous god, Ptah, 
which was particularly venerated at Memphis. An 
