A philosophical treatise on the hereditary peculiarities of the human race : with notes illustrative of the subject, particularly in gout, scrofula, and madness / by Joseph Adams.

  • Adams, Joseph, 1756-1818.
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A philosophical treatise on the hereditary peculiarities of the human race : with notes illustrative of the subject, particularly in gout, scrofula, and madness / by Joseph Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    159/168 (page 21)
    Bretagne et Ics colibets dc I’Aunis et de la Rochelle dolvont Jcur originer (Jes circonstances donaferent naissatice aux maladies des premiers habitans, qui furent fixecs par la misere dans certaines families dont oa voit encore Ics rejetons. ** ll n’est aucune precaution que Ton n'ait prise anciennement pour empftchcr que ce mal n’etendit scs ravages. Les cretins avaient unc place separee dans Ics eglises; ils y entraient par une porte particuli^rc, et avaient uii b^nitier uniquement destine k lours usages; de tellcs mesures se multipliercnt au point qu’en 1460 Ics etats de Bearn voulaicnt qu’il fdt defendu aux cretins de marcher pieds nus dans Ics rues.”~£>rfl/f<, vol.i. p. 188. In a foreign language, it might seem unfair to suspect a studied obscurity in tnese passages. I have ventured to suggest that there is probably no other connection between goitre and cretinism than the accidental circumstance of an union between two such families. Dr. Reeve, in an ingenious paper published in the Philosophical Transactions, after describing several cases of cretinism, un- accompanied with goitre, assures us that “ There is no necessary connection between goitre and cretinism, notwithstanding the assertions and ingenious reasoning adduced by Foder4. That it is probable the one has been assumed as the cause of the other, from the enlargement of the thyroid gland being a frequent occurrence in cretins; and as it forcibly strikes the ob. server from the deformity it occasions, this strong impression may have converted an accidental, though frequent, occurrence, into a general and necessary cause. Cretinism is frequently observed without any aifection of the thyroid gland, and that gland is often very much enlarged without any aifection of the intellectual faculties. There seems [continues he] to be some similarity between cretinism and rickets, as they both take place in infancy, are both characterised by feebleness of body, and sooner or later by feebleness of mind, and they both affect males and females equally ; but there is no sort of connection between persons afflicted with bronehoccle in England, and with rickets. For, although it might be granted, that there is some delicacy of frame in females about the period of pubescence, when bronchocele usually occurs, yet neither irregular formation of the bones, nor weakness of the intellectual powers, arc common symptoms attending bronchocele in Britain.” See also Memoirs of the late Dr. Reeve, Etlin. Med. Journal, vol. xi. p. 234. Where, we might ask this ingenious and candid vvriter, is the similarity between cretinism and rickets ; or winch are the authors who speak of rickets as attended with Jcfbleness of 1711/1(1? At the close of the paper. Dr. Reeve adds, as a presumptive argument in favour of liis opinion, that Glisson describes rickets in Britain about the time that Plater men- tions Cretinism. But this only shows the improved progress