Cretinism

Incurable congenital disease very common in the valleys of the mountainous parts of Europe; also found in all portions of the world, under the most varying conditions of climate; characterized by arrested development and premature o ification of the bones of the head and limbs, the patients being dwarfed, more or le idiotic, and with the thyroid gland enlarged (goitre). The drinking of snow water, coitus while intoxicated, and a host of other conditions have been a igned as causes, but some unknown climatic and geological cond i