Nervous and mental diseases / by Archibald Church and Frederick Peterson.

  • Church, Archibald, 1861-1952.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nervous and mental diseases / by Archibald Church and Frederick Peterson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    front, often with persistent fontanel. The flabby, thickened features; snubbed nose, thick Hps, drooping eyelids, mouth agap, lolling, hyper- trophic tongue, and drooling saliva make up a peculiarly repulsive appearance. Add, now, the short, often lipomatous, neck ; a protuberant abdomen, often showing inguinal and umbilical ruptures ; a deviating spine, rudimentary genitals, and dwarfish, crooked limbs, and it is im- possible to imagine a less human-looking object with human attributes. Sparse hair, eczema, and an infiltrated, inactive skin are commonly present. The thyroid is absent. Idiots mentally, they can ordinarily exercise a little attention and even show some affection. In some in- stances they assist themselves in eating and dressing. They never learn to speak, and never show signs of pubescence. Often even the first dentition is extremely defective. On the other hand, they lack the destructiveness, noisiness, tics, convulsions, onanism, balancing and motor disturbances so common in idiocy from cerebral lesion. These Tig. 218.—Sporadic cretin before and after twelve months' thyroid treatment; 1, Five years old ; 2, oue year later (Parker). unfortunate creatures may attain thirty or forty years of age, and usually die of pulmonary concomitants. The disease is also amenable in some degree to the thyroid treat- ment. Cretinism is a term of ancient lineage and honored usage, but of somewhat uncertain definition. It has been applied to the goitrous and feeble-minded natives of localities where goiter is endemic. Certain valleys in France, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland, and some parts of Great Britain, Sweden, and of other countries widely scattered over the globe present endemic conditions that predispose to goit- rous enlargements. Sucli ati endemic has been noted in Minnesota and Ontario. A few definite facts are the results of observations 32