VALLEY OF AOSTA, AND ASCENT OF THE GRANDES JORASSES.
The valley of Aosta is famous for its bouquetins and infamous for its
crétins. The bouquetin, steinbock, or ibex, was formerly widely
distributed throughout the Alps. It is now confined almost entirely, or
absolutely, to a small district in the south of the valley of Aosta,
and fears have been repeatedly expressed in late years that it will
speedily become extinct.
But the most sanguine person does not imagine that crétinism will be
eradicated for many generations. It is widely spread throughout the
Alps, it is by no means peculiar to the valley of Aosta, but nowhere
does it thrust itself more frequently upon the attention of the
traveler, and in no valley where “every prospect pleases” is one so
often and so painfully reminded that “only man is vile.”
It seems premature to fear that the bouquetins will soon become
extinct. It is not easy to take a census of them, for, although they
have local habitations, it is extremely difficult to find them at home.
But there is good reason to believe that there are at least six hundred
still roaming over the mountains in the neighborhood of the valleys of
Grisanche, Rhèmes, Savaranche and Cogne.
It would be a pity if it were otherwise. They appeal to the sympathies
of all as the remnants of a diminishing race, and no mountaineer or
athletic person could witness without sorrow the extinction of an
animal possessing such noble qualities; which a few months after birth
can jump over a man’s head at a bound, without taking a run; which
passes its whole life in a constant fight for existence; which has such
a keen appreciation of the beauties of Nature, and such disregard of
pain, that it will “stand for hours like a statue in the midst of the
bitterest storm, until the tips of its ears are frozen”! and which,
when its last hour arrives, “climbs to the highest mountain-peaks,
hangs on a rock with its horns, twists itself round and round upon them
until they are worn off, and then falls down and expires”!![52] Even
Tschudi himself calls this story wonderful. He may well do so. I
disclaim belief in it,—the bouquetin is too fine a beast to indulge in
such antics.
[52] Tschudi’s _Sketches of Nature in the Alps._
Forty-five keepers, selected from the most able chasseurs of the
district, guard its haunts. Their task is not a light one, although
they are naturally acquainted with those who are most likely to attempt
poaching. If they were withdrawn, it would not be long before the ibex
would be an extinct wild animal, so far as the Alps are concerned. The
passion for killing something, and the present value of the beast
itself, would soon lead to its extermination. For as meat alone the
bouquetin is valuable, the gross weight of one that is full grown
amounting to from one hundred and sixty to two hundred pounds, while
its skin and horns are worth ten pounds and upward, according to
condition and dimensions.
In spite of the keepers, and of the severe penalties which may be
inflicted for killing a bouquetin, poaching occurs constantly. Knowing
that this was the case, I inquired at Aosta, upon my last visit, if any
skins or horns were for sale, and in ten minutes was taken into a
garret where the remains of a splendid beast were concealed—a
magnificent male, presumed to be more than twenty years old, as its
massive horns had twenty-two more or less strongly-marked knobby rings.
The extreme length of the skin, from the tip of the nose to the end of
the tail, was one metre sixty-nine centimetres (about five feet seven
inches), and from the ground to the top of its back had been,
apparently, about seventy-seven centimetres. It is rare to meet with a
bouquetin of these dimensions, and the owner of this skin might have
been visited with several years’ imprisonment if it had been known that
it was in his possession.
[Illustration: THE BOUQUETIN]
The chase of the bouquetin is properly considered a sport fit for a
king, and His Majesty Victor Emmanuel, for whom it is reserved, is too
good a sportsman to slaughter indiscriminately an animal which is an
ornament to his domains. Last year (1869) seventeen fell to his gun at
one hundred yards and upward. In 1868, His Majesty presented a fine
specimen to the Italian Alpine Club. The members banqueted, I believe,
upon its flesh, and they have had the skin stuffed and set up in their
rooms at Aosta. It is said by connoisseurs to be badly stuffed—that it
is not broad enough in the chest and is too large behind. Still, it
looks well-proportioned, although it seems made for hard work rather
than for feats of agility. From this specimen the accompanying
engraving has been made.
It is a full-grown male about twelve years old, and if it stood upright
would measure three feet three and a half inches from the ground to the
base of its horns. Its extreme length is four, feet seven inches. Its
horns have eleven well-marked rings, besides one or two faintly-marked
ones, and are (measured round their curvature) fifty-four and a half
centimetres in length. The horns of the first-mentioned specimen
(measured in the same way) had a length of only fifty-three and a half
centimetres, although they were ornamented with nearly double the
number of rings, and were presumably of double the age of the
former.[53]
[53] Mr. King, in his _Italian Valleys of the Alps_, says, “In the
pair (of horns) I possess, which are _two feet_ long, there are eight
of these yearly rings.” It would seem, therefore (if the rings are
annual ones), that the maximum length of horn is attained at a
comparatively early age.
The keepers and the chasseurs of this district not only say that the
rings upon the horns of the ibex tell its age (each one reckoning as a
year), but that the half-developed ones, which sometimes are very
feebly marked indeed, show that the animal has suffered from hunger
during the winter. Naturalists are skeptical upon this point, but
inasmuch as they offer no better reason against the reputed fact than
the natives do in its favor (one saying that it is not so, and the
other saying that it is so), we may perhaps be permitted to consider it
an open question. I can only say that if the faintly-marked rings do
denote years of famine, the times for the bouquetin are very hard
indeed; since in most of the horns which I have seen the lesser rings
have been very numerous, and sometimes more plentiful than the
prominent ones.
The chef of the keepers (who judges by the above-mentioned indications)
tells me that the ibex not unfrequently arrives at the age of thirty
years, and sometimes to forty or forty-five. He says, too, that it is
not fond of traversing steep snow, and in descending a couloir that is
filled with it will zig-zag down, by springing from one side to the
other in leaps of fifty feet at a time! Jean Tairraz, the worthy
landlord of the Hotel du Mont Blanc at Aosta (who has had opportunities
of observing the animal closely), assures me that at the age of four or
five months it can easily clear a height of nine or ten feet at a
bound!
Long live the bouquetin! and long may its chase preserve the health of
the mountaineering king, Victor Emmanuel! Long life to the bouquetin!
but down with the crétin!
The peculiar form of idiocy which is called crétinism is so highly
developed in the valley of Aosta, and the natives are so familiarized
with it, that they are almost indignant when the surprised traveler
remarks its frequency. One is continually reminded that it is not
peculiar to the valley, and that there are crétins elsewhere. It is too
true that this terrible scourge is widespread throughout the Alps and
over the world, and that there are places where the proportion of
crétins to population is, or has been, even greater than in the valley
of Aosta; but I have never seen or heard of a valley so fertile and so
charming—of one which, apart from crétinism, leaves so agreeable an
impression upon the wayfarer—where equal numbers are reduced to a
condition which any respectable ape might despise.
The whole subject of crétinism is surrounded with difficulty. The
number of those who are afflicted by it is unknown, its cure is
doubtful, and its origin is mysterious. It has puzzled the most acute
observers, and every general statement in regard to it must be fenced
by qualifications.
It is tolerably certain, however, that the centre of its distribution
in the valley of Aosta is about the centre of the valley. The city of
Aosta itself may be regarded as its head-quarters. It is there, and in
the neighboring towns of Gignod, Villeneuve, St. Vincent and Verrex,
and in the villages and upon the high-road between those places, that
these distorted, mindless beings, more like brutes than men, commonly
excite one’s disgust by their hideous, loathsome and uncouth
appearance, by their obscene gestures and by their senseless gabbling.
The accompanying portrait of one is by no means overdrawn: some are too
frightful for representation.
[Illustration: A CRÉTIN OF AOSTA]
How can we account for this particular intensity toward the middle of
the valley? Why is it that crétins become more and more numerous after
Ivrea is passed, attain their highest ratio and lowest degradation at
or about the chief town of the valley, and then diminish in numbers as
its upper termination is approached? This maximum of intensity must
certainly point to a cause, or to a combination of causes, operating
about Aosta, which are less powerful at the two extremities of the
valley; and if the reason for it could be determined, the springs of
crétinism would be exposed. The disease would be even more puzzling
than it is if it were confined to this single locality, and the
inquirer were to find not merely that it was almost unknown upon the
plains to the east and in the districts to the west, but that the
valleys radiating north and south from the main valley were practically
unaffected by it. For it is a remarkable circumstance, which has
attracted the notice of all who have paid attention to crétinism, that
the natives of the tributary valleys are almost free from the
malady—that people of the same race, speaking the same language,
breathing the same air, eating the same food, and living the same life,
enjoy almost entire immunity from it, while at the distance of a very
few miles thousands of others are completely in its power.
A parallel case is found, however, on the other side of the Pennine
Alps. The Rhone valley is almost equally disfigured by crétinism, and
in it, too, the extremities of the valley are slightly affected
compared with the intermediate districts—particularly those between
Brieg and St. Maurice.[54] This second example strengthens the
conviction that the great development of crétinism in the middle of the
valley of Aosta is not the result of accidental circumstances.
[54] It was stated a few years ago that one in twenty-five of the
natives of the Canton Valais (which is chiefly occupied by the valley
of the upper Rhone) were crétins. This would give about 3500 to the
canton. At the same time the valley of Aosta contained about 2000
crétins.
It was formerly supposed that crétinism arose from the habitual
drinking of snow- and glacier-water. De Saussure opposed to this
conjecture the facts that the disease was entirely unknown precisely in
those places where the inhabitants were most dependent upon these kinds
of water, and that it was most common where such was not the case—that
the high valleys were untainted, while the low ones were infected. The
notion seems to have proceeded from crétins being confounded with
persons who were merely goîtred, or at least from the supposition that
goître was an incipient stage of crétinism.
Goître, it is now well ascertained, is induced by the use of chemically
impure water, and especially hard water; and the investigations of
various observers have discovered that goître has an intimate
connection with certain geological formations. In harmony with these
facts it is found that infants are seldom born with goîtres, but that
they develop as the child grows up, that they will sometimes appear and
disappear from mere change of locality, and that it is possible to
produce them intentionally.
It is not so certain that the causes which produce goître should be
regarded as causes of the production or maintenance of crétinism. It is
true that crétins are very generally goitrous, but it is also true that
there are tens of thousands of goitrous persons who are entirely free
from all traces of crétinism. Not only so, but that there are districts
in the Alps and outside of them (even in our own country) where goître
is not rare, but where the crétin is unknown. Still, regarding the evil
state of body which leads to goître as being, possibly, in alliance
with crétinism, it will not be irrelevant to give the former disease a
little more attention before continuing the consideration of the main
subject.
In this country the possession of a goître is considered a misfortune
rather than otherwise, and individuals who are afflicted with these
appendages attempt to conceal their shame. In the Alps it is quite the
reverse. In France, Italy and Switzerland it is a positive advantage to
be goîtred, as it secures exemption from military service. A goître is
a thing to be prized, exhibited, preserved—it is worth so much hard
cash; and it is an unquestionable fact that the perpetuation of the
great goitrous family is assisted by this very circumstance.
When Savoy was annexed to France the administration took stock of the
resources of its new territory, and soon discovered that although the
acres were many the conscripts would be few. The government bestirred
itself to amend this state of affairs, and after arriving at the
conclusion that goître was produced by drinking bad water (and that its
production was promoted by sottish and bestial habits), took measures
to cleanse the villages, to analyze the waters (in order to point out
those which should not be drunk), and to give to children who came to
school lozenges containing small doses of iodine. It is said that out
of five thousand goitrous children who were so treated in the course of
eight years, two thousand were cured, and the condition of two thousand
others was improved; and that the number of cures would have been
greater if the parents “had not opposed the care of the government, _in
order to preserve the privilege of exemption from military service._”
These benighted creatures refused the marshal’s bâton and preferred
their “wallets of flesh!”
No wonder that the Préfet for Haute-Savoie proposes that goitrous
persons shall no longer be privileged. Let him go farther, and obtain a
decree that all of them capable of bearing arms shall be immediately
drafted into the army. Let them be formed into regiments by themselves,
brigaded together and commanded by crétins. Think what _esprit de
corps_ they would have! Who could stand against them? Who would
understand their tactics? He would save his iodine and would render an
act of justice to the non-goîtred population. The subject is worthy of
serious attention. If goître is really an ally of crétinism, the sooner
it is eradicated the better.
De Saussure substituted heat and stagnation of air as the cause of
crétinism, in the place of badness of water. But this was only giving
up one unsatisfactory explanation for another equally untenable; and
since there are places far hotter and with pernicious atmospheres where
the disease is unknown, while, on the other hand, there are situations
in which it is common where the heat is not excessive, and which enjoy
a freely circulating atmosphere, his assumption may be set aside as
insufficient to account for the crétinism of the valley of Aosta. And
in regard to its particular case it may be questioned whether there is
anything more than an imaginary stagnation of air. For my own part, I
attribute the oppression which strangers say they feel in the middle of
the valley not to stagnation of air, but to absence of shadow in
consequence of the valley’s course being east and west; and believe
that if the force of the wind were observed and estimated according to
the methods in common use, it would be found that there is no
deficiency of motion in the air throughout the entire year. Several
towns and villages, moreover, where crétins are most numerous, are
placed at the entrances of valleys and upon elevated slopes, with
abundant natural facilities for drainage—free from malaria, which has
been suggested as accounting for the crétinism of the Rhone valley.
Others have imagined that intemperance, poor living, foul habits and
personal uncleanliness sow the seeds of crétinism; and this opinion is
entitled to full consideration. Intemperance of divers kinds is
fruitful in the production of insanity, and herding together in filthy
dwellings, with little or no ventilation, may possibly deteriorate
_physique_, as much as extreme indulgence may the mind. These ideas are
popularly entertained, because crétins are more numerous among the
lower orders than among the well-to-do classes. Yet they must, each and
all, be regarded as inadequate to account for the disease, still less
to explain its excess in the centre of the valley; for in these
respects there is little or no distinction between it, the two
extremities and the neighboring districts.
A conjecture remains to be considered regarding the origin of crétinism
which is floating in the minds of many persons (although it is seldom
expressed), which carries with it an air of probability that is wanting
in the other explanations, and which is supported by admitted facts.
The fertility of the valley of Aosta is proverbial. It is covered with
vineyards and cornfields, flocks and herds abound in it, and its
mineral resources are great. There is enough and to spare both for man
and beast. There are poor in the valley, as there are everywhere, but
life is so far easy that they are not driven to seek for subsistence in
other places, and remain from generation to generation rooted to their
native soil. The large numbers of persons who are found in this valley
having the same surnames is a proof of the well-known fact that there
is little or no emigration from the valley, and that there is an
indefinite amount of intermarriage between the natives. It is
conjectured that the continuance of these conditions through a long
period has rendered the population more or less consanguineous, and
that we see in crétinism an example; upon a large scale, of the evil
effects of alliances of kindred.
This explanation commends itself by reason of its general applicability
to crétinism. The disease is commonly found in valleys, on islands or
in other circumscribed areas in which circulation is restricted or the
inhabitants are non-migratory; and it is rare on plains, where
communications are free. It will at once be asked, “Why, then, are not
the tributary valleys of the valley of Aosta full of crétins?” The
answer is, that these lateral valleys are comparatively sterile, and
are unable to support their population from their internal resources.
Large numbers annually leave and do not return—some come back, having
formed alliances elsewhere. There is a constant circulation and
introduction of new blood. I am not aware that there are returns to
show the extent to which this goes on, but the fact is notorious.
This conjecture explains, far better than the other guesses, why it is
that crétinism has so strong a hold upon the lower classes, while it
leaves the upper ones almost untouched; for the former are most likely
to intermarry with people of their own district, whilst the latter are
under no sort of compulsion in this respect. It gives a clue, too, to
the reason of the particular intensity in the centre of the valley. The
inhabitants of the lower extremity communicate and mix with the
untainted dwellers on the plains, whilst the conditions at the upper
extremity approximate to those of the lateral valleys. Before this
explanation will be generally received a closer connection will have to
be established between the assumed cause and the presumed effect.
Accepting it, nevertheless, as a probable and reasonable one, let us
now consider what prospect there is of checking the progress of the
disease.
It is, of course, impossible to change the habits of the natives of the
valley of Aosta suddenly, and it would probably be very difficult to
cause any large amount of emigration or immigration. In the present
embarrassed condition of Italian finances there is very small chance of
any measure of the sort being undertaken if it would involve a
considerable expenditure. The opening of a railway from Ivrea to Aosta
might possibly bring about, in a natural way, more movement than would
be promoted by any legislation, and by this means the happiest effects
might be produced.
There is little hope of practical results from attempts to cure
crétins. Once a crétin, you are always one. The experiments of the late
Dr. Guggenbühl demonstrated that some _half_-crétins may even become
useful members of society if they are taken in hand early in life, but
they did not show that the nature of the true or complete crétin could
be altered. He essayed to modify some of the mildest forms of
crétinism, but did not strike at the root of the evil. If fifty
Guggenbühls were at work in the single valley of Aosta, they would take
several generations to produce an appreciable effect, and they would
never extirpate the disease so long as its sources were unassailed.
Nor will the house which has been built at Aosta to contain two hundred
crétin beggars do much, unless the inmates are restrained from
perpetuating their own degradation. Even the lowest types of crétins
may be procreative, and it is said that the unlimited liberty which is
allowed to them has caused infinite mischief. A large proportion of the
crétins who will be born in the next generation will undoubtedly be
offspring of crétin parents. It is strange that self-interest does not
lead the natives of Aosta to place their crétins under such
restrictions as would prevent their illicit intercourse; and it is
still more surprising to find the Catholic Church actually legalizing
their marriage. There is something horribly grotesque in the idea of
_solemnizing_ the union of a brace of idiots; and since it is well
known that the disease is hereditary, and develops in successive
generations, the fact that such marriages are sanctioned is scandalous
and infamous.
The supply, therefore, is kept up from two sources. The first
contingent is delved from apparently healthy parents; the second, by
inheritance from diseased persons. The origin of the first is obscure;
and before its quota can be cut off, or even diminished, the mystery
which envelops it must be dissipated. The remedy for the second is
obvious, and is in the hands of the authorities, particularly in those
of the clergy. Marriage must be prohibited to all who are affected, the
most extreme cases must be placed under restraint, and crétins whose
origin is illegitimate must be subject to disabilities. Nothing short
of the adoption of these measures will meet the case. Useless it will
be, so long as the primary sources of the disease are untouched, to
build hospitals, to cleanse dwellings, to widen streets, or to attempt
small ameliorations of the social circumstances of the natives. All of
these things are good enough in themselves, but they are wholly
impotent to effect a radical change.
No satisfactory conclusion will be arrived at regarding the origin of
crétinism until the pedigrees of a large number of examples have been
traced. The numerical test is the only one which is likely to discover
the reality. The necessary inquiries are beyond the powers of private
persons, and their pursuit will be found sufficiently difficult by
official investigators. Great reluctance will be exhibited to disclose
the information which should be sought, and the common cry will
certainly be raised that such scrutiny is without general advantage and
is painful to private feelings. But in matters which affect mankind in
general, individual feelings must always be subordinated to the public
interest; and if the truth is to be arrived at in regard to crétinism,
the protests of the ignorant will have to be overridden.
[Illustration: THE GRANDES JORASSES AND THE DOIRE TORRENT, VAL FERRET
(D’ITALIE).]
Crétinism is the least agreeable feature of the valley of Aosta, but it
is, at the same time, the most striking. It has been touched upon for
the sake of its human interest, and on account of those unhappy beings
who—punished by the errors of their fathers—are powerless to help
themselves; the first sight of whom produced such an impression upon
the most earnest of all Alpine writers, that he declared, in a
twice-repeated expression, its recollection would never be effaced from
his memory.[55]
[55] De Saussure, §§ 954, 1030.