28 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



Some years ago the subject of goitre in domesticated animals was 

 investigated by M. Baillarger (" Med. Times and Gazette," October 4, 

 1862), an eminent French physician, and several statements of im- 

 portance made with regard to this affection. He found that in a num- 

 ber of places in the departments of the Isere and Savoie, the greater 

 number of mules had an immense hypertrophy of the thyroid body, and 

 of a much larger size than that generally seen in man. In one stable 

 in Modane, amongst twenty animals, nineteen were affected with this 

 disease ; and of all the mules examined, only one-third were free from 

 it. Amongst horses goitre was not nearly so frequent ; but still much 

 more so than is generally believed. In one place seven horses were 

 examined, which were well fed and cared, lodged in light and well- 

 ventilated stables ; and yet four of them had goitre. The same disease 

 was found to exist, in a diminishing ratio, in dogs, cows, sheep, goats, 

 and pigs. The human population of the districts in which the domes- 

 tic animals were thus affected, likewise suffered from enlargements of 

 the thyroid glands. The fact of the frequency of goitre among mules 

 is of great interest, as these animals are sterile, and sterility is a cha- 

 racteristic feature of a certain class of goitrous human beings. Dr. 

 Edwards Crisp informs me that cast colts are never subject to it, but 

 that it is not uncommon in blood colts, and that occasionally in tho- 

 roughbred animals the thyroids have been removed in consequence of 

 the disfigurement they cause being regarded as a blemish in valuable 

 animals. Others have observed, that the horse is not very liable to 

 goitre. Youatt (on Horse, p. 258), remarks that Mr. Percivalis almost 

 the only author who takes notice of enlargement of the thyroid glands 

 in the horse. They sometimes grow, he says, to the size of an egg or 

 larger ; but are unattended by cough or fever, and are nothing more 

 than an eyesore. He has also seen the disease in a monkey. It ap- 

 pears that certain breeds of the dog are particularly liable to this dis- 

 ease. Mr. Youatt says the spaniel or pug are the most so ; that if a 

 spaniel or pug puppy is mangy, pot-bellied, rickety, or deformed, he 

 seldom fails to have some enlargement of the thyroid glands. Exertion 

 causes him to pant from the pressure of the swelling upon the wind- 

 pipe, and Youatt has seen suffocation ensue ; an occurrence which has 

 happened in the human subject from a similar cause. He further ob- 

 serves, that there is a breed of the Blenheim spaniel, in which periodic 

 goitre is well-marked, the slightest cold is accompanied with enlarge- 

 ment of the thyroid glands, but the swelling altogether disappears in 

 the course of about a fortnight ; he is quite assured that goitre in dogs 

 is hereditary, and thinks that no one accustomed to dogs can doubt this 

 for a moment. He is satisfied that iodine has almost a specific action 

 in reducing the swelling. Blaine (" Canine Pathology," 2nd ed., 1824, 

 p. 113), observes that bronchocele, which is synonymous with the term 

 goitre, is a very common complaint among dogs ; and that pugs, barbets, 

 and French pointers are peculiarly liable to it. (The barbet is a small 

 poodle, the result of some unknown and disadvantageous cross with the 

 true poodle.) He thinks that in dogs it rather runs in the breed than 



