60 
MISCELLANEA. 
Goitre and Fever. 
M. Grange, whose investigations I told you of a short time 
ago, has made further researches on the subject of goitre. He 
journeyed to Turin; and on comparing notes with the savans of 
that city, ascertained the remarkable fact, that a geological map 
of Piedmont, and a goitre map of the same country, fully con- 
firm his views respecting ‘ the presence of goitre and cretinism 
on magnesian formations.’ He shews that in the valley of 
Aosta, where the soil is schistous, with a layer of diluvium, and 
dominated by metamorphic rocks, goitre is rare ; but beyond 
Bard, where the water becomes purgative, from the large amount 
of sulphate of magnesia which it contains, goitre and cretinism 
abound. In the valley of Entremont there is a small district, 
a sort of oasis, as it were, of mica schist, on which five villages 
and several hamlets are built, in none of which do the distress- 
ing diseases ever appear, while they prevail in the surrounding 
localities. 
Another sanitary fact is related by M. Ancelon. In Meurthe 
there is a village named Lindre Basse, where endemics are con- 
stant, appearing as intermittent and typhoid fevers, the latter 
at intervals of three months; besides which, other affections 
prevailed, caused by miasmatic influence. Close to the village 
was a large pond, which was kept full for two years for the 
breeding of fish, and then emptied, to allow of the land, 
which had been submerged, being cultivated in the third year; 
after which it was again refilled, and the process repeated. In 
the first year of the cycle came the intermittent fevers ; in the 
second, the typhoids : in the third, the miasmatic. The practice 
was interrupted in 1848-49, when, instead of emptying the 
pond as usual, the proprietor kept it on the increase, until the 
whole valley was overspread with water several inches in depth 
for a distance of about six miles. This change produced an 
alteration in the development of disease : the miasmatic af- 
fections did not appear, but the whole country was infested with 
intermittent fevers, which seemed to repel or absorb all other 
complaints : the cholera even stopped at the edge of the 
marshy land. M. Ancelon considers that the statement of these 
facts will assist in the study of cause and effect as regards 
disease. 
Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. 
