Notice of Dr Guggenbühl's hospital for infant cretins.

Date:
[1850?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notice of Dr Guggenbühl's hospital for infant cretins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mvn, example of Christian love we bow with feelings of unmixed veneration; for when he began his work, there were no admiring crowds to fan en¬ thusiasm ; there was every thing to fear from want of funds; and little co¬ operation to hope for from the medical practitioners of the country. There were deep-rooted prejudices to overcome; money never is abundant in Switzerland, and one canton takes but little interest in the institutions of another. Once inspired with this generous determination, and prompted by scientific knowledge, Dr Guggenbiihl gave himself up to the study of the probable causes of this mysterious disorder, and of the probable means of curing it. For this, he availed himself of the researches and opinions of others, and also of what is always a sure guide—the hereditary wis¬ dom of the inhabitants of those places where cretinism is most prevalent. He found that from the celebrated De Saussure, down to the living physicians of Switzerland, all agreed that the disorder never showed it¬ self above the height of four thousand feet on the mountains; and that children attacked by it, and immediately carried up into a purer and keener air, were sure to recover, and even to be more lively, and forward¬ er on returning again into the valleys, at the approach of winter, than the other children of those parts; but also, they easily fall back again into the same state as before, and require more than one summer spent upon the heights, to free them entirely from all symptoms of the dis¬ order. He found also those who were rich enough sent their offspring away while infants to healthier spots; and that the inhabitants of Sion, in the Valais, who possess mayens, or pastures, and chalets on the heights, send their wives up to them to be delivered there, with the conviction that the infants so born are freer from attacks of cretinism than those born in the valleys. All these undoubted facts led him to found this establishment at the height so indicated, and in the healthiest spot possible, where the little cretins can spend the winter as well as the summer in comfort, and be not only under the care of nurses and physicians, but also under that of schoolmasters and mistresses, and so receive bodily care and intellectu¬ al instruction at the same time. He began in the spirit of Franke, whose example he so often alludes to; and relying on the fulness of Christian benevolence to realise what he felt sure of executing, were the means obtained. His difficulties were great, and the sympathy he met with at first amongst his own country¬ men next to nothing; but we cannot but regard the neighbourhood of Xnterlacken, which in summer is filled with tourists from every country, as a most providential circumstance for the success of the rising hospital. The first news that we received of its existence was from the graphic pen of one of the daughters of the Bussian ambassador, the Baron of Krud- ener, then at Interlacken, who had accompanied the Princess Bephin on a visit to it, and who described its very infancy with enthusiasm. Some time after, the king of Wurtemberg, while resident at Interlacken, inspect¬ ed it himself, and gave substantial marks of his interest; and the scienti¬ fic of all countries, as well as the philanthropic and the curious, who visit the Bernese Oberland, have spread a knowledge of its foundation throughout the continent more rapidly than otherwise could ever have been hoped for.
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