293 



calcareous matter is equally unfounded ; and even the general opi- 

 nion, that goitre is endemial in mountainous countries, is of no value, 

 since it is rare in Scotland, though mountainous, and very common 

 in the county of Norfolk. 



From those dissections which have been made of cretins by Acker- 

 man, by Malacarni of Turin, and by Fodere, some very singular ap- 

 pearances in the cranium have been observed. There was no cavity 

 for the reception of the pons varolii and medulla oblongata ; and that 

 which contained the cerebellum scarcely exceeded one third of its 

 natural capacity. 



The present paper is accompanied with two drawings taken in the 

 anatomical museum at Vienna, from the skull of a cretin who died 

 at thirty years of age ; yet the fontanelle is not closed, the second 

 set of teeth are not out of their sockets, and none of the bones are 

 distinctly and completely formed. Every part bears marks of irre- 

 gularity in the growth and formation of bone. The zygomatic and 

 maxillary processes of the ossa malse are wanting ; the ossa nasi very 

 small ; in the temporal bone the zygomatic process terminates at the 

 coronoid process of the lower jaw ; the mastoid and styloid processes 

 are wanting ; the os occipitis is unusually large, and numerous addi- 

 tional ossa triquetra are seen along the whole course of the lambdoi- 

 dal suture. 



Cretinism, says the author, is a most distinct instance of the effect 

 of physical causes on the intellectual as well as on the bodily powers ; 

 and it is now sufficiently ascertained, that it may be prevented by 

 removal of children from the confined and dirty situations to the 

 more open and airy parts of the mountains : and, accordingly, the 

 number of cretins has, within the last ten years, sensibly diminished. 

 The analogy between this disorder and rickets is considerable. It is 

 remarkable, that they were both first described nearly at the same 

 time ; and it is to be hoped that they will disappear together, and 

 at some happier period be known only by description. 



On a new Property of the Tangents of the three Angles of a Plane 

 Triangle. By Mr. William Garrard, Quarter Master of Instruction 

 at the Royal Naval Asylum at Greenwich. Communicated by the 

 Astronomer Royal. Read February 11, 1808. [Phil. Trans. 1808, 

 p. 120.] 



On a new Property of the Tangents of three Arches trisecting the Cir- 

 cumference of a Circle. By Nevil Maskelyne, D.D. F.R.S. and 

 Astronomer Royal. Read February 18, 1808. [Phil Trans. 1808, 

 p. 122.] 



The same property which at the last meeting was stated by Mr. 

 Garrard to belong to the tangents of any three parts of a semicircle, 

 was in this paper extended to all cases of trisection of the whole 

 circle ; but the demonstration of course could not be read to the 



Society. 



