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.

    4/8 page 4
    in most branches of instruction, than the generality of children of their age. Their progress is never uniform or regular, but always by fits and starts, and all at once, as if a cell were opened in their brain, or a veil withdrawn from their understanding, and that, too, when least expected. Parents and schoolmasters might learn many a useful lesson on that Al¬ pine height, and find data which would save more than one dunce from the rod, and teach the master that he is far more to blame than the scholar. His great principle is to strengthen the body before he attempts to develop the mind. He even goes so far as to say, that to venture on the second before the first is accomplished, is productive of the most disastrous consequences; and wrere his warning voice but listened to, how many victims of precocity, how many little wonders, who minister to parental self-love for a time, and then sink into mediocrity afterwards, might be saved from subsequent suffering and nervous irritability! Dr Guggenbiihl divides cretinism into several different species:—ls£, Atrophy, in which the spinal marrow has suffered mostly, and the ex¬ tremities are nearly paralysed: 2d, Rachitie, where the bones have become soft and spongy, and out of proportion: 3d, Hydrocephalie; the disorder being occasioned by water formed in the cells of the skull, which ought to be occupied by the brain: 4th, Inborn, of which the germ is in the infant at its birth, and which presents any or all of the foregoing principles, and varies in intensity, from the slightly affected, down to the mass of animal matter which lies where it is placed, and can neither move nor speak. In this class are to be remarked those who have imperfect bodily growth, and the head out of proportion to the body; and also those who do not speak, yet are not deaf, but who have great difficulty in articulating, and are too lazy to attempt it. We might give some striking extracts from the German report publish¬ ed by Dr Guggenbiihl in 1846, illustrative of each of these forms of cret¬ inism; but perhaps the following case of the first-mentioned form of cret¬ inism (atrophy) will be considered sufficient in a non-professional journal like this:— “ D-, a little girl of six months old, was brought to us. Her mother is strong and healthy, but her father weak and scrofulous. Till she was four months old she was in good health, but weaker than children of that age generally. A violent cold was the beginning of her illness; and when brought to our house, her appearance was so wretched, as to procure her the name of the little worm, from the Princess-Royal Hen¬ rietta of Wurtemberg, during her visit to us; and truly wras she so named, for she was frightful to look upon. Her body was more like a skeleton cover¬ ed with skin than anything else, and that skin was cold and wrinkled. All her muscles were immoveable, and the extremities of her body like miniature hands and feet. Her face was deadly white, her forehead and cheeks wrinkled like an old person’s, while her black and piercing eyes had a singularly knowing look. She slept ill, her pulse was feeble, and she had no natural heat. She came to us in July; the weather was beautiful, and the keenness of our mountain air, the uninterrupted sunshine of our un¬ clouded sky, the electricity which predominates in the atmosphere, all which have so great an influence on our invalids, were furthered by strict regimen and constant care. This delicate little creature, who so soon
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3