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A surgeon also, whom I met at the baths of Louesch, informed me that he had frequently extracted from different goitres small pieces of tuf, which is also found in the stomachs of cows, and the dogs of this country are also subject to this malady.
To intimate his secrecy in love-matters, he had an inkstand with a Cupid on it, holding a finger on his lips. I believe it is still in existence. He did not disclose his mistresses' names, as Dante did, for the purpose of treating them with contempt; nor, on the other hand, does he appear to have been so indiscriminately gallant as to be fond of goitres.
I could not learn whether it was necessary that both parents should have goitres to produce cretin children: indeed the want of chastity in the half-breed women would be a bar to the deduction of any inference on this head. February 8.
"But it may be observed, that in these elevated situations, fountains are too near their sources to dissolve as much calcareous sediment as by the time they reach the plain. Some say, that strangers are never attacked by the Goitres, but the truth is, they are only less subject to them than natives of the country.
In proportion as the land has been cultivated in some districts the goitres have disappeared. M. Bonstettin told us of some cretins, the lowest in the scale of human intellect, who used to assemble before a barber's shop and laugh immoderately at their own imitations of all those who came to the shop, ridiculing them in a language of their own. To MRS. EDGEWORTH. PREGNY, Aug. 10, 1820.
The pouting pigeons, who have goitres, as Mrs. Marcet said, are frightful; they put in their heads behind these bags of wind, and strut about as if proud of deformity. We saw four Antwerp pigeons, one of which went, Sir John told us, from Tower Hill to Antwerp in six hours. To MRS. EDGEWORTH. MARDOAKS, Jan. 19, 1822.
Another very plausible idea is, that they are the descendants of unfortunate individuals afflicted with goitres, which is, even to this day, not an uncommon disorder in the gorges and valleys of the Pyrenees.
We were shown at once into a clean room, and were soon surrounded by bustle and preparation for our comfort. There are but 143 inhabitants, of whom six four men and two women have goitres. We had been previously informed that the whole town was goitrous. There were three deaf-mutes, but no idiots, in the town.
Exaggeration is the common fault of travellers, and, to judge from the accounts given by some who have visited this country, a stranger would be led to suppose, that all its population were either idiots, or afflicted with Goitres.
The country of the Valais is remarkable for the vast numbers of persons it contains, affected with the goitres and also of idiots. The neighbouring provinces are also more or less affected with these maladies.
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