ect to the goitres than the rest of the
inhabitants. A surgeon also, whom I met at the baths of Louesch,
informed me that he had _frequently_ extracted from different goitres
_small pieces of tuf_, which is also found in the stomachs of cows, and
the dogs of this country are also subject to this malady. This gentleman
added, that, to complete the cure of young persons attacked by this
complaint, he either removed them from waters impregnated with tuf, or
recommended them to drink only of water that had been purified. The
children of goitrous parents are often born with these swellings; but
there are also instances of children born with goitres, whose parents
are free from them."

That celebrated naturalist, M. de Saussure, attributes Goitres not to
the water, but to the heat of the climate, and to the stagnation of the
air, and he informs us, he has never seen Goitres in any place elevated
5 or 6,000 toises above the level of the sea, and that they are most
common in valleys where there is not a free circulation of air. "But it
may be observed, that in these elevated situations, fountains are too
near their sources to dissolve as much calcareous sediment as by the
time they reach the plain. Some say, that strangers are never attacked
by the Goitres, but the truth is, they are only less subject to them
than natives of the country. In fine, we may observe, that if snow water
occasions the Goitres wherever they abound, there should also be snow
water, which experience proves not to be the fact. If the concentration
of heat and stagnation of the air are necessary to their formation, it
would follow that they should not abound in those places where the air
circulates freely, which is not less contrary to fact than the former
supposition. If waters impregnated with tuf, or certain calcareous
substances, produce the Goitres, it will follow, that in every place
where they abound, the inhabitants should drink of waters so
impregnated, which seems consonant to the truth of the fact." The same
causes which occasion the Goitres, have probably a considerable
operation in producing the number of idiots, as they are always in most
abundance where the Goitres prevail. Such is the intimate and
inexplicable sympathy between the body and the mind. When the Goitres
become large, they produce a difficulty of breathing, and render the
person so affected, extremely indolent and languid. These idiots are
treated with great regard by the rest o