340 On the Causes of Goitre. 
According to Coxe, Tuf abounds in all those districts 
where Goitre is common, and that gentleman agrees with 
Mr. De Luc in considering Tuf as the cause: In those 
parts of the state of New York where the disease prevails, 
the springs are said to deposit calcareous matter: so does 
the well water of Pittsburgh, but much less than the water 
in the Limestone valley of Cumberland in this state where 
no cases of Goitre occur. 
The water of the Rivers Alleghany and Monongehela, on 
the contrary contains little or no calcareous matter: This 
fact is worth mentioning in connexion with the opinion of 
De Luc, and the statement of Dr. Stevenson of this place, 
that “ formerly the inhabitants of Pittsburgh drank the wa- 
ter of the neighbouring rivers, of late well water only is 
used, still the increase of inhabitants considered, the disease 
is not more frequent than formerly.” 
With respect to the idea the doctor probably meant to 
suggest, that the river water might have been concerned in 
the matter ; it is opposed by the fact, that our boatmen, who 
amount to some thousands, and who drink no other water 
than that of these rivers, are as free from the disease as any 
other class of people. 
Fodere remarked that the Goitrous tumours commonly in- 
creased in summer and decreased in winter: in this place 
they decrease in summer, and increase in winter. 
Some have thought it owing to the use of water impreg- 
nated with Fossil coal: Coal being a characteristic of this 
place, a conjecture of that sort would naturally present it- 
self. The probability is that coal exists in this country 
wherever Goitre prevails. Indeed Bituminous coal may be 
found in all the great secondary region from the Alleghanies 
to the Rocky mountains: but we do know that elsewhere 
the same coal does not produce it, and why should it?— 
The springs that come out from our strata of coal, are 
strongly impregnated with the oxid of iron, mixed with 
aluminous matter, slightly vitriolated by the pyrites: This 
water has a good deal of astringency : its qualities are ton- 
ie ; and tonics or astringents are the remedies in Goitre if 
there is any virtue in Burnt sponge.* 
* Perhaps the author may not have met with the fact now stated on good 
authority, that sponges contain the new and powerful body Iodine which is 
said to be almost a specific in Goitre, and to which the efficacy of sponge 
in this complaint, is now, in Europe distinctly attributed.— Editor. 
