This singular disorder was first discovered and noticed by Plater, about
the middle of the seventeenth century, among the poor inhabitants of
Carinthia and the Valais, where, as in the valleys of the Lower Alps and
the Pyrenees, it is also found to be an endemic affection. According to
Sir George Staunton, it is also observed in Chinese Tartary. It has been
erroneously confounded by some writers with bronchocele and rachitis, from
both of which it is totally distinct.
Cretinism presents various modifications in kind, and every intermediate
grade between that extreme degree of physical and mental debasement which
is characterized by the utmost deformity, and entire absence of mental
manifestation, the organic and vegetative functions only being performed.
There are certain circumstances that distinguish cretins from idiots; and
their infirmities appear to depend upon endemic or local causes, regarding
which much diversity of opinion has prevailed both amongst medical men and
travellers.
The cretins were also called _Cagots_ and _Capots_. In Navarre these
unfortunates go by the name of _Gaffos_ and _Ganets_; and in various
valleys of the Pyrenees they are called _Gezits_ or _Gezitains_. Near La
Rochelle, some of them are also found, and there they are known by the
appellation of _Coliberts_; and in Britanny _Cacons_ and _Cagneux_. The
derivation of these names shows the contempt and disgust that they
excited,--_Cagot_, according to Scaliger, being derived from _Canis
Gottus_, or _Dog of a Goth_; _Colibert_ is traced to _quasi libertus_, or
slave. The Spaniards call them _Gavachos_, a term of reproach, which they
also applied to the French during the Peninsular struggle.
The body of these poor creatures is stunted, their height not exceeding
four feet. There is a total want of due proportion between it and the
other parts, the height of the head with reference to the body being from
one-fourth to one-fifth, instead of one-eighth, the natural proportion;
the neck is strong, and bent downwards; the upper limbs reach below the
knees, and the arm is shorter than the fore-arm; the chest narrow, the
abdomen hemispherical, and of a length not exceeding the height of the
head; the thighs, with the haunches, of greater width than the shoulders,
and shorter than the legs, the calves of which are wanting; the feet and
toes distorted. In the head, the masticating organs, the lower jaw, and
the nose, preponderate considerably over the organs of sense and
intelligence; the skull is depressed, and forms a lengthened and angular
ellipsis; the receding forehead presents internally large frontal sinuses,
to which the brain has yielded part of its place; the top of the head is
flattened, instead of being vaulted; the occiput projects but slightly,
and runs almost even with the nape of the neck, as in ruminating animals.
The face is neither oval nor round, but spread out in width; the eyes are
far apart, slightly diverging, small, and deep-seated in their orbits; the
pupil contracted, and not very sensitive to light; the eyelids, except
when morbidly swollen, are flaccid and pendent. Their look is an unmeaning
stare, and turns with indifference from every thing that is not eatable.
The elongated form of the lower jaw, the thick and puffed lips, give them
a greater resemblance to ruminating creatures than to man. The tongue is
rather cylindrical than flat, and the saliva is constantly running from
the angles of their mouth. Enlargement of the thyroid glands generally
prevails, sometimes to an enormous extent. Indeed, this appearance is
commonly considered as a distinguishing sign of cretinism. The other
glands of the throat are also obstructed. Many of these poor wretches are
both deaf and dumb; yet do they appear unconscious of their miserable
existence. Stretched out or gathered up under the solar rays, their head
drooping in idiotic apathy, they are only roused from their torpor when
food is presented to them.
This endemic malady is supposed to arise from the use of snow-water, or of
water impregnated with calcareous earth. Both of these opinions are
without foundation. All the inhabitants of districts near the glaciers,
drink snow and ice waters without being subject to the disorder; and the
common waters of Switzerland, strongly impregnated with calcareous
substances, are most salubrious. At Berne, the waters are extremely pure,
yet Haller observed that swellings of the throat are not uncommon. De
Saussure has assigned another cause, and refers the disorder to the
physical features of the mountainous districts in which it prevails. The
valleys, he tells us, are surrounded with very high mountains, sheltered
from currents of fresh air, and exposed to the direct, and what is worse,
the reflected rays of the sun. They are marshy, and hence the atmosphere
is humid, close, and oppressive. When to these chorographical causes, he
further says, we add the domestic ones, which are also well known to
prevail among the poor of these regions,--such as innutritious food,
indolence, and uncleanliness, with a predisposition to the disease from an
hereditary taint of many generations,--we can sufficiently account for the
prevalence of cretinism in such places, and for the most humiliating
characters it is ever found to assume.
This specious reasoning, however, is overthrown by observation. In the
first instance, this character of the country does not affect its other
inhabitants; and secondly, the _goitre_ is found in warm latitudes, and
Mungo Park observed it amongst the Africans of Bambara, on the banks of
the Niger. Marsden has also seen it at Sumatra. Moreover, this affection
is scarcely ever seen in the mountains, but principally prevails in the
valleys.
It is more than probable that these ill-favoured creatures belong to a
particular race; for we must take care not to confound goitre with
cretinism, since goitre is common where cretinism is prevalent. It has
been remarked that the offspring of the natives of the Valais who
intermarry with persons from the Italian side of the Alps, are more
subject to goitres than those born of native parents; and that females who
have husbands from the higher Alps, seldom have children affected with
this infirmity. It is pretty clear that in these observations, goitre and
cretinism are confounded.
That these miserable cagots belong to a particular race of men, most
probably accidentally degraded in their transmission from our primitive
stock, appears most likely. We have sought the derivation of the several
terms of contempt and disgust attached to them in different countries, to
which migration may have led their parents. Some writers have traced their
descent to the Goths and Vandals, thus chastised for their devastations.
Gebelin, Belleforet, and Ramont consider them as descendants of the
Visigoths; while Marca, bishop of Couserans, denounces them at once as
Jews and Saracens; and other clerical writers have maintained that they
are the miserable relicts of the heretic Albigenses who had escaped the
holy massacres of 1215; although there did exist cagots in the year 1000,
in the abbey of St. Luc, as they are described in a _for_ of Navarre,
bearing date 1074, and issued by Ramirez.
These helpless beings have also been considered as the offspring of
Bohemians and gipsies. Bishop, or rather Senator Gregoire, maintained that
they sprung from the hordes of northern barbarians who overran the south
of Europe in the third and fourth centuries. Whatever might have been the
origin of these poor creatures, they seem to share that ignominious
destiny that has marked various races in different countries. The _Agotos_
of Navarre, the _Maragotos_ of Leon, the _Batuecos_ of Castile, the
_Wendes_ of Silesia, are all held in as much contempt as the _Parias_ and
the _Vaddahs_ of India. Even in Otaheite a degraded caste was found, from
which victims were selected to appease Divine wrath, or propitiate their
gods.
The traditional contempt in which certain races are held, a contempt that
seems to have affected their physical appearance, may perhaps be traced to
the degradation of slavery, that seems to deprive man of all his proud
attributes, both in a moral and physical point of view. The effects of
tyranny, and the distinctions that oppression has created in the several
castes and ranks of mankind, are every where evident. What a difference
exists in Scotland between the chieftains and the humbler individuals of
their clans!--between the naires of India and their vassals! In France,
said Buffon, you may distinguish by their aspect, not only the nobility
from the peasantry, but the superior order of nobility from the inferior,
these from the citizens, and citizens from the peasants. "The field-slaves
in America," observes the enlightened Dr. Smith, "are badly clothed, fed,
and lodged, live in small huts in the plantations, remote from the example
and society of their superiors. Living by themselves they retain many of
the customs and the manners of their ancestors. The domestic servants, on
the other hand, who are kept near the persons or employed in the families
of their masters, are treated with great lenity, their service is light,
they are well fed and clothed. The field-slaves, in consequence of their
condition, are slow in changing the aspect and figure of Africa; while the
domestic servants have advanced far before them in acquiring the agreeable
and regular features, and the expressive countenance, of civilized
society. The former are frequently ill-shaped; they preserve in a great
degree the African lips, and nose, and hair; their genius is dull, and
their countenances sleepy and stupid. The latter are straight and well
proportioned; their hair extends to three or four, sometimes even to six
or eight inches; the size of their mouth is handsome, their features
regular, their capacity good, and their looks animated." Dr. Prichard has
also stated that similar changes become visible in the third and fourth
generations in the West India islands; and I have seen several negresses
in those colonies perfectly beautiful. In the Bahama islands I knew a
female slave of the name of Leah, belonging to my late friend Mr.
Commissary Brookes, as black as jet, and descended in the third
generation from African parents, whose features would have vied in
symmetry with the fairest specimen of the Caucasian race.
Let us not, therefore, seek in snow-water or calcareous impregnations for
the causes of deformity and degradation in any unfortunate castes of
mankind. Their misery may more probably be traced to the iron rod of
despotism, or the oppression of bigotry,--influences that mark out races
as abject slaves, or objects of Divine wrath, that ought to be scorned by
the wealthy and the powerful, and spurned and persecuted by the faithful
and the elect; although, when it has served its purposes, priestcraft has
held up the cagot, and the leper, and the idiot, as objects of veneration.
When the tourist, in his Alpine and Pyrenean excursions, meets a wretched
cagot, let him pause and contemplate the offspring of slavery, and reflect
on what man is, and on what man might be,--nay, on what man _will_ be.