Historical Tidbit: Charles Henry Fagge (June 6, 1838 to 1883) and Endemic Cretinism
Submitted by Alan D. Rogol, MD, Ph.D.
Fagge, an assistant physician at Guy’s Hospital in London described a 14-year-old boy with severe signs and symptoms of cretinism (as it was called) and a large bronchocoele (goiter). He had previously evaluated similar children, but none had had a goiter, nor did either of the 2 boys reported by Curling (Med-Chir Tr 1850; 33:303). At autopsy neither boy had any thyroid tissue. These patients were designated “sporadic cretinism” as described by wasting of, or absent thyroid tissue, to distinguish them from the more common, endemic goiter (Med-Chir Tr 1871; 54:155). These descriptions were soon followed by Gull who evaluated an adult myxedematous woman-with the “cretenoid state” (Trans Clin Soc, London 1874; 7:180).