30 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



which has percolated through magnesian limestone rocks or strata, and 

 containing the soluble salts of lime and magnesia in solution." In the 

 Kingdom of Oude, which is considered to be geologically made up of 

 the alluvial detritus of the Himalayan chain, goitre is very common in 

 animals. The water percolating through the soil of the province contains 

 abundance of lime held in solution by carbonic acid. AtHissawpore, a vil- 

 lage about twelve miles distant from Secrora, on the Surjoo River, dogs 

 and other animals are affected with goitre. Goitre in animals has also 

 been observed in Nepaul. On one occasion, a goat gave birth to a kid 

 with a goitre as large as its head ; and it is noticed that pups of a 

 month old, bred from English dogs, are very frequently affected by it, 

 and also lambs. M'Clelland observed that dogs and colts were often 

 affected with goitre in certain districts of Gorruckpore. It appears to 

 be from some peculiarity in the water they drink that animals acquire 

 this complaint. It is a matter of notoriety, that there are springs in 

 Savoy which will infallibly give goitre to all, men or animals, who 

 drink of them. It is said, that the drinking water of La Maurienne 

 (Savoy) so rapidly produces goitre, that young men liable to the con- 

 scription are known to make use of this means of escaping military 

 service. The difficulty is to find what ingredient it is in the water 

 which has this effect. From a close examination of the geology of 

 Prance, Switzerland, and Lombardy, especially of the districts where 

 goitre occurs in men and animals, M. St. Lager comes to the con- 

 clusion, that where goitre is endemic there the soil will always be 

 found to contain iron pyrites ; copper pyrites, galena, and baryta are 

 also frequently found. "Where goitre is found occurring on alluvial 

 soils, the soil has been brought down from strata containing pyrites, as 

 in the valleys of the Rhine and the Po. Goitre is endemic in Surrey, 

 Sussex, Hants, Bucks, and Norfolk, on chalk containing silex and 

 pyrites, and in Derbyshire and Nottingham over coal containing pyrites. 

 On volcanic soil goitre is observed when sulphurous vapours are in 

 contact with ferruginous clays, as in Java, Sumatra, and the Azores. 

 It appears to me that the study of goitre in the lower animals offers 

 attractions to the geologist and the naturalist, and that it presents a 

 fresh and wide field for observation. The geography of disease is in 

 many cases mapped out by the affections of the lower animals as 

 plainly as by those of man ; and in no case more distinctly than in that 

 of goitre. The lower animals are seen in this instance to be affected 

 by local terrestrial conditions, in a manner similar to man himself; and 

 they at the same time afford a simpler field for study. Independently 

 of the humane motives which ought to impel every lover of nature to 

 care and cure, if possible, the diseases of the lower animals, he must 

 feel that in doing so he is likely to be instrumental in directly benefit- 

 ting the human race. The great exertions which are being at present 

 made to raise the science of Comparative Pathology to its proper rank, 

 testify to the importance of this long-neglected branch of knowledge ; 

 and will, I hope, be taken as my apology for having made these very 

 few remarks before this Society. It is very much to be desired, that 



