Dr. Reeve’s Account of Cretinism. 1 15 
no cretins are to be seen, and the mother of one of the chil- 
dren told me, of her own accord, without my asking the 
question, that her child was quite a different being when he 
was up the mountain, as she called it, for a few days. 
The production of cretinism, by the bad quality of the air 
and the food, the neglect of moral education, and other evils 
attendant upon poverty, is supported by facts so pointed, that 
the greater number of cases in mountainous districts where 
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snow-water abounds, may safely be ascribed to these general 
causes. The notion of snow-water being the cause of goitre, 
and consequently of cretinism, seems to have been derived 
from Pliny (Lib. II. cap. 37,) and copied by almost every 
succeeding writer, because it coincided with their hypotheses 
of cold and crude matters, although directly contradicted by 
facts. In the first place, persons born in places contiguous to 
the glaciers, who drink no other water than what flows from 
the melting of ice and snow, are not subject to this disorder ; 
and, secondly, the disorder is observed in places where snow 
is unknown. 
The theory of water impregnated with calcareous matter 
being the cause, is equally unfounded ; because the common 
waters of Switzerland excel those of every other country in 
Europe for purity and flavour. There is not a village, nor a 
valley, but what is enlivened by limpid rivulets or streams 
gushing from the rocks. The water usually drank at La 
Batia and Martigny is from the river Dranse, which flows 
from the glacier of St. Bernard, and falls into the Rhone ; it 
is remarkably free from earthy matter, and well tasted. At 
Martigny, there are two or three pumps, the water of which 
is pure and equally fit for culinary purposes, but said to be 
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