IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
259 
This girl cut her first tooth at twelve months — eight months later 
than the other children. When one year old she lost animation and 
developed oedema, hut began to walk. After three years of age she sat 
in a chair continuously, never walked of her own volition — only when 
urged to move. She rarely spoke and only in answer to questions. She 
increased in height to her sixth year and in weight to her sixteenth 
year. When seventeen years old she cut three of her second teeth. 
At twenty years and four months of age I found this girl 36.5 inches 
in height and weighing thirty-nine pounds; the typical height of a child 
of three years — the weight of a girl of five years, of age. She retained 
her first teeth with three of the second set just through the gums. She 
spoke but few words in a harsh frog like voice and sat apathetically in 
a chair moving only when urged to do so. She did not exhibit the intel- 
ligence of a normal child of two years. 
At this time the artificial feeding of sheeps’ thyroids was begun and 
in two weeks the beginning of the transformation shown in the photo- 
graphs was noticeable. During the next few months the short harsh hair 
fell out. The second dentition progressed, was completed. The 
weight, at first decreasing, soon rapidly increased. The height in four 
years increased 7.5 inches. The same increase as is normal for a girl 
from her third to her seventh year. 
The mental awakening paralelled the bodily transformation. The 
voice softened. The child learned to talk, to smile, to play and to think 
as normal children do these things. In the first year of her treatment 
she wore out a pair of shoes for the first time in her life. She now goes 
to school, plays with dolls and aside from her bowed legs, fiattened nose 
and as yet too low pitched voice is to all intents a child of five years of 
age. In the fantasies of fiction I* recall no stranger scene presented than 
this family group with one child for whom eighteen years are not 
counted. 
So long was this lost interval that I doubt if her life will ever now 
reach its full stature. The decreasing increments of gain by months 
now indicate that this girl will always be a dwarf and will probably 
never reach the average adult intellectual development. She is, though, 
progressing as are other children of her age — the age reckoned without the 
years of inactivity. She now is three feet nine inches in height and 
weighs seventy-six pounds. A gain of eight and one-half inches and of 
forty pounds since she began taking thyroids. 
The second Iowa Cretin of which I present photographs was discov- 
ered earlier in her life of inactivity. In the ninth year of her age I 
began the feeding of thyroids. Her condition was similar to that of the 
other child but her transformation has been more rapid. The photo- 
graphs show the change better than words can describe it. Now three 
rears after beginning the treatment she is a bright, active, happy girl 
of an age less the years of her inactivity. 
My purpose in presenting to the Academy these striking illustrations 
of extreme variation in development is to suggest to teachers the possi- 
bility of an explanation of lesser variations from the normal average 
