Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/763

Rh inspector whose arrival is awaited with fear, and he receives all the attentions and bribes which are meant to propitiate the dreaded investigator of abuses. The play appeared on the stage in the spring of 1836, and achieved a full success, in spite of the opposition attempted by the official classes whos'e malpractices it exposed. The aim which Gogol had in view when writing the Revizor he afterwards fully attained in his great novel, ﬂlertvuiya Dds/ti, or Dead Souls, the ﬁrst part of which appeared in 1842. The hero of the story is an adventurer who goes about Russia making ﬁctitious purchases of “dead souls,” 2'.e., of serfs who have died since the last census, with the view of pledging his imaginary property to Government. But his adventures are merely an excuse for drawing a series of pictures, of an un- favourable kind, of Russian provincial life, and of introduc- ing on the scene a number of types of Russian society. Of the force and truth with which these delineations are exe- cuted the universal consent of Russian critics in their favour may be taken as a measure. From the French version of the story a general idea of its merits may be formed, and some knowledge of its plot and its principal characters may be gathered from the English adaptation published in 1854, as an original Work, under the title of Home Life in Russia. But no one seems to be able fully to appreciate Gogol’s merits as a humorist, who is not intimate with the language in which he wrote as well as with the society which he depicted. In 1836 Gogol for the ﬁrst time went abroad. Subsequently he spent a consider- able amount of time out of Russia, chieﬂy in Italy, where much of his Dead Souls was written. His residence there, especially at Rome, made a deep impression on his mind, which, during his later years, turned towards mysticism. The last works which he published, his Cmtfession and Correspondence with Friends, offer a painful contrast to the light, bright, vigorous, realistic, humorous writings which had gained and have retained for him his im— mense popularity in his native land. Asceticism and mystical exaltation had told upon his nervous system, and its feeble condition showed itself in his literary com- positions. In 1848 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and on his return settled down at Moscow, where he died, March 3, 1852, not having quite completed his forty-third year.  GOITO, a large village of Italy, in the province of Mantua and district of Volta, situated on the right bank of the Mincio, about 14 miles from Castiglione, on the high- way between Brescia and Mantua. Its position has made it ﬁgure from time to time in the records of Italian warfare. In 1701 it was taken byzthe allies, in 1706 by the prince of Hesse, and in 1796 by the French. It was the scene of a severe conﬂict between the French and the Austrians in 1814 ; and in 1848 it saw the defeat of the Austrians by the Piedmontese. The population of the commune in 1871 was 5274.  GOITRE (from guitar, the throat; synonyms, Bron- choccle, Derbyshire Neck), a term in medicine applied to a swelling in the front of the neck caused by an enlargement; of the thyroid gland. This structure, which lies between the skin and anterior surface of the windpipe, and in health is not large enough to give rise to any external prominence, is liable to occasional variations in size, more especially in females, a temporary enlargement of the gland being not uncommon at the catamenial periods, as well as during pregnancy. In the disease now‘ under consideration, how- ever, the swelling is well marked, and is not only unsightly, but may by its growth occasion much discomfort, and even give rise to serious symptoms from its encroachment on the windpipc and other important parts in the neck. The size to which goitrous growths may attain is extraordinary, Alibert recording cases of goitre where the tumour not only enormously enlarged the neck but hung down over the breast, or even reached as low as the middle of the thigh. In districts where the disease prevails the goitre usually appears in early life, often from the eighth to the twelfth year. Its growth is at ﬁrst slow, but after several years of comparative quiescence a somewhat sudden increase is _ a not unfrequent occurrence. In the earlier stages of the disease the condition of the gland is simply an enlargement of its constituent parts, which retain their normal soft consistence 3 but in the course of time other changes super- vene, and it may become the seat of cystic formations, or acquire hardness from increase of connective tissue or cal- careous deposits. Occasionally the enlargement of the gland is uniform, but more commonly one of the lobes, generally the right, is the larger. In some rare instances the disease has been noticed to be limited almost entirely to the isthmus which connects the two lobes of the gland. The growth is unattended with pain, and is not inconsistent with a fair measure of health. Goitre is a marked example of an endemic disease. There are few parts of the world where it is not found pre- vailing in certain localities, these being for the most part valleys and elevated plains in mountainous districts. The wide distribution of this disease has naturally led to exten- sive inquiry and to abundant speculation as to its origin. It is unnecessary to mention the numerous theories which have been advanced on the subject. Many of these have already been referred to under. The most generally accepted view among physicians is that which ascribes the malady to the use of drinking water impregnated with the salts of lime and magnesia, in which ingredients the water of goitrous districts would appear always to abound. This theory alone, however, is inade- ' quate, as is evident from the often-observed fact that in localities not far removed from those in which goitre pre- vails, and where the water is of the same chemical composi- tion, the disease may be entirely unknown. Hence among the best authorities the tendency now is to regard goitre as the result of a combination of causes, among which local telluric or malarial inﬂuences concur in an important manner with those of the drinking water in developing the disease. It is noteworthy that goitre can often be cured by removal from the district where it prevails, as also that it is apt to be acquired by previously healthy persons who settle in goitrous localities; and it is only in such places that the disease exhibits any hereditary tendencies. In the treatment of goitre the ﬁrst step is the removal, if possible, of the patient from the affected locality, and attention to general hygienic rules. The employment of burnt sponge as a cure for goitre was in general use until Dr Coindet of Geneva showed that its acknowledged virtues were in all probability due to the iodine which it contained, and propOsed as a substitute this latter agent in a pure state. Dr Coindet’s views were amply borne out, and iodine and its preparations have been universally adopted as the most potent remedy in this disease, and have super— seded all other medicines. Small and gradually increased doses of the drug, either in the form of iodide of potassium or what is known as Lugol’s solution appear to be the best methods of administration. The external appli- cation of iodine to the goitre, in the form of liniment or ointment, is of scarcely less value than its internal employment, and would seem to he sometimes capable of effecting a cure alone, as is evident from the method of treatment adopted with singular success in India and originally proposed by the late Major Holmes. This con- sists in applying to the goitre, by means of a spatula, an ointment of biniodide of mercury for about ten minutes soon after sunrise, and placing the patient with his goitre exposed to rays of the sun for six or seven hours. Blister-