of a recent Continental Tour. 27 



tolerably well paved ; and, in common with every Swiss vil- 

 lage, or even chalet, it has got its fountains of crystalline 

 water, which are usually supplied from elevated mountain 

 springs, conducted through wooden pipes. In Martigny I 

 first observed the custom, common throughout many parts of 

 Switzerland, of hanging mistletoes over the house doors ; a 

 superstition for which I have not been able to get any reason 

 rendered. Martigny, although sadly injured by the inun- 

 dation of the Drance in 1818, a catastrophe which we shall 

 more fully touch upon when treating of St. Bernard, is a 

 rising little town, from its convenient situation for Alpine 

 tourists, and the celebrity it has acquired from having been 

 Napoleon's head-quarters, attracting travellers. 



The valley of the Rhone, at the extremity of which it stands, 

 is one of the deepest in Switzerland, surrounded, as it is, by 

 mountains of great altitude, and its bottom but little more 

 than 1000 ft. above the level of the sea. We may here remark 

 an instance of the analogy that always subsists between the 

 magnitude of rivers and the depth of the valleys in which they 

 rise. One of the first objects that arrested my eye in Martigny 

 was a cretin^ or person afflicted with goitre. It was the first 

 I had ever seen ; and, as it happened to be a very bad case, it 

 made a powerful impression on me. Perhaps, of all the 

 " ills that flesh is heir to," none is more humiliating in the 

 spectacle it presents of mind and body. As this disease has 

 been the subject of much controversy in the learned world, 

 and as few people are to be met with that have a correct 

 notion of it, a short account of it, I presume, will not be out 

 of place. Indeed, it seems to me that although this is 

 intended chiefly for the use of gardeners, yet to exclude every 

 thing but gardening from it, would be like a gardener tra- 

 velling with his eyes obstinately shut, except when he was 

 informed that a garden was in view. 



The disease called goitre, and by physicians broncho-* 

 cele, is seated in the glands of the throat, affecting, chiefly, 

 the thyroid gland. Its appearance is that of a swelling, 

 varying in size from a walnut to 20 or 25 lbs. weight. The 

 protuberance generally remains of the usual colour of the 

 skin ; but in bad cases it becomes of a livid red, and some- 

 times suppurates. It is sometimes congenite, and frequently 

 appears in after-life. It is not wholly confined to man; 

 dogs and other quadrupeds have been observed labouring 

 under it. 



It is not confined to Switzerland, but is or has been found 

 in some parts of Italy, in Sumatra, in Tartary, in the East 

 Indies, at Dresden, and in Derbyshire. It has been said not 



