GOITRE

Syn. Derby shire neck ; Bronchocele , Tracheocele ; Hernia bronchial is , L. A tumour on the fore part of the neck. It sometimes occurs in Derby shire, and is endemic in the Alps and several other mountainous districts. Iodine and the iodides appear to be the only substances capable of curing or even arresting the progre of this disease. There seems little doubt that goitre arises from drinking water rendered hard by the presence of magnesian and lime salts. The disease called cretinism, which is a peculiar form of idiocy, is in some countries more particularly frequently a ociated with goitre. Both these maladies prevail in Wurtemberg, Saxony, Silesia, the Tyrol, Carynthia, Galicia, Austria, and Switzerland. In England, goitre seems principally confined to the magnesian limestone district extending from Nottingham to the Tyne; it also prevails in a smaller degree in Derby shire, Norfolk, Cambridge, and Somersets hire, where a few scattered cases of cretinism are to be met with. Goitre is very much more general than is usually supposed in France. In Asia, it is to be found amongst the inhabitants of Chinese Tartary, Thibet, and Ceylon, and in India amongst the dwellers in the valleys and extensive plains that lie at the foot of the Him a lay an mountains. The disease is likewise known to exist in many parts of Africa; goitre is also far from uncommon in certain districts of North America; whilst in South America it is met with amongst the people inhabiting the plateaus of New Grenada, which comprise localities differing so greatly in climatic conditions, as deep and humid valleys, and arid plains almost or entirely destitute of verdure. Goitre is a disease that may be very rapidly and readily set up. Bally says he has known certain waters in Switzerland produce it even in eight or ten days; and the French medical journals contain many similar instances of its early development.