Vice-President’s Address. 127 
Switzerland a type of human being is met with, known 
as a cretin; their dwarfed stature, misshapen limbs, large 
belly, thick lips, and protruded tongue, make them the 
reverse of pleasing objects to look upon. The condition, 
however, is not confined to Switzerland, for a goodly number 
of cretins are scattered up and down throughout this country. 
Not only is the body stunted and unlovely, but the mental 
faculties are in the most primitive and elementary state, 
and can hardly be said to be on a level with the higher 
domesticated animals. A cretin, no matter what its age, 
gives no more, or even less evidence of mind than an infant 
a few months old. In fact, it is a human being whose 
physical and mental growth and development have been 
arrested and perverted, producing an uncomely body and an 
idiot brain. 
In this connection I must also refer to a disease, known 
as Myxcedema, which is met with in adult life—a disease 
characterised by deposition under the skin of a mucoid 
substance, a disappearance of the hair leading to complete 
baldness, and a marked alteration in the expression of the 
face, in the direction of coarseness and loss of expression. 
Along with these visible physical alterations, there are 
marked mental phenomena; the individual affected changes 
from mental vigour to feebleness, from alertness to apathy, 
until, finally, no mental response beyond the very feeblest 
can be elicited. Body and mind alike become ponderous 
and inactive, and the individual sinks as a water-logged 
vessel forsaken by captain and crew. 
These two conditions are allied, although the phenomena 
presented by them differ. By experiments and observations, 
which need not be detailed here, it has been proved beyond 
question that both conditions result from changes in the 
Thyroid Gland leading to annihilation of its function. This 
in itself would be a most interesting discovery, but the 
sequel to itis much more so. It has been found that, if the 
Thyroid Gland of one of the higher mammals, the one used 
being the sheep’s, be eaten raw, or if an extract of it be 
given, as striking a physical and mental change is wrought, 
but in the reverse direction. The ponderous body resumes 
