262 E VOL UTION AND DISEASE. 



to this matter, a large number of cretins has been 

 detected in England, and many have been critically 

 observed, and detailed accounts of their anatomy placed 

 on record, which remove any doubts as to the identity 

 of the English sporadic with the Alpine endemic cretin. 

 It is also significant that since careful accounts of the 

 leading features of the disease have been circulated, 

 cretins have been recognized in many parts of England, 

 and instead of being limited to the small village of 

 Chiselborough, in Somersetshire, it turns out to be a 

 far from infrequent condition in many large towns, 



FIG. 128. A Calf-cretin. Length of trunk, thirty centimetres. 

 Length of limbs, five centimetres. 



including London. Cretinism is not confined to the 

 human species. In 1877 H. Miiller described a cre- 

 tinous calf, and subsequently Eberth was able, in a 

 monograph on this subject, to refer to cases which had 

 been reported in the human subject under different 

 names. Thus far cretinism has been recorded several 

 times in the calf, in sheep, and dogs, and the careful 

 accounts of the anatomy of the specimens leave no 

 room for doubt as to its identity with the cretinism of 

 man. Animal cretins occur not only in regions where 

 the disease is endemic in man, but also in England, 



