Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 1.djvu/313

Rh calcareous matter is equally unfounded; and cven the general opi- nion, that goitre is endemial in mountainous countries, is of no value, since it is rare in Scotland, though mountainous, and very common in the county of Norfolk.

From those dissections which have been made of cretins by Acker- man, by Llalat‘arni of Turin, and by Foderé, some very singular ap- pearances in the cranium have been observed. There was no cavity for the reception of the pons varolii and medulla oblongata; and that which contained the cerebellum scarcely exceeded one third of its natural capacity.

The present paper is accompanied with two drawings taken in the anatomical museum at Vienna, from the skull of a cretin who died at thirty years of age; yet the fontanelle is not closed, the second set of teeth are not out of their sockets, and none of the bones are distinctly and completely formed. Every part bears marks of irre- gularity in the growth and formation of bone. The zygomatic and maxillary processes of the ossa maize are Wanting; the ossa nasi very small; in the temporal bone the zygomatic process terminates at the coronoid process of the lower jaw; the mastoid and styloid processes are wanting; the os occipitis is unusually large, and numerous addi- tional ossa triquetra are seen along the whole course of the lambdoi- dal suture.

Cretinism, says the author, is a most distinct instance of the effect of physical causes on the intellectual as well as on the bodily powers ; and it is now sufﬁciently ascertained, that it may be prevented by removal of children from the conﬁned and dirty situations to the more open and airy parts of the mountains : and, accordingly, the number of cretins has, within the last ten years, sensibly diminished. The analogy between this disorder and rickets is considerable. It is remarkable, that they were both ﬁrst described nearly at thc same. time; and it is to be hoped that they will disappear together, and at some happier period be known only by description.

The same property which at the last meeting was stated by Mr. Garrard to belong to the tangents of any three parts of a semicircle, was in this paper extended to all cases of trisection of the whole circle; but the demonstration of course could not be read to the Society.