FOOT — ON GOITRE IN ANIMALS. 29 



depends upon local or endemic circumstances. Other dogs, as terriers, 

 spaniels, &c, sometimes have it ; but in the larger tribes it is very 

 seldom seen. The swelling comes on generally while very young, and 

 continues to enlarge to a certain size ; after which it usually remains 

 stationary, seldom increasing to such a degree as to prove fatal. It is, 

 however, troublesome, and in some measure hurtful from the pressure 

 it occasions on surrounding parts. In some experiments, which M. St. 

 Lager has recently performed, with a view to establish his theory of 

 the geological origin of goitre in men and animals, he has found that 

 mice acquire goitre very readily. Out of a dozen of these animals, 

 which he kept for three months, three had enlargement of the thyroid 

 gland at the end of that time ; and these three diseased mice had had 

 sulphide and sulphate of iron mixed with their food, while the rest had 

 had various other mineral substances administered to them. He also 

 experimented on two dogs, with a view of producing goitre artificially, 

 but both of these came to an untimely end, by devouring the " appats," 

 or enticing bait, which the French police employ to destroy stray dogs. 

 One, however, who had been taking small doses of the sulphide of iron 

 daily for four months, had a decided though slight hypertrophy of the 

 thyroid gland. He suggests, that in case any one should desire to re- 

 peat these experiments, either dogs or pigs should be selected, as the 

 herbivora seem to be less liable to goitre, where it is endemic, than the 

 omnivorous or carnivorous animals. 



In considering the subject of goitre in animals, it is necessary to 

 review briefly the conditions which appear to induce the complaint in 

 man, as the same conditions undoubtedly operate, to a great degree, 

 upon the lower animals. The snow-water theory of its cause has long 

 been given up, on account of the occurrence of the disease in tropical 

 climates, such as Brazil, Java, India, and Sumatra. Towards the end 

 of the last century, Coxe and Deluc first suggested that carbonate of 

 lime was the noxious ingredient' in the water used, and subsequently 

 the magnesian salts were blamed. Dr. Inglis ("Treatise on English 

 Bronchocele") accused the ridge of magnesian limestone running from 

 north to south through the centre of Yorkshire, and margining the 

 shires of Derby and Nottingham, of being concerned with the preva- 

 lence of goitre in these parts of England. However, in the case of the 

 city of Paris, the water is very hard, and contains sulphate of magne- 

 sia enough to purge most new-comers, but goitre is almost unknown 

 there. After the curative action of iodine was discovered by Coindet, 

 Prevost suggested that the disease might be owing to the absence of 

 that element from the water used. The Sardinian Commission lately 

 appointed to consider the question of the cause of goitre, leaned to the 

 view that privation and a generally defective hygiene had very much 

 to say to it. The most recent culprit is, according to St. Lager, iron 

 pyrites. There appears to be a great deal of evidence in favour of the 

 calcareous origin of goitre in animals. The disease is defined in a 

 standard medical work (" Aitken's Pract. Med.," ii. 57), as " a specific 

 affection of the thyroid gland, induced by the persistent use of water, 



