GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN CRETINISM: A CLASSIFICATION*

Abstract

The term “cretinism” lacks precise definition. Even the origin of the term is obscure (1). According to Means (2), a cretin is one who “suffers from athyreosis from intra-uterine life or early in infancy at best.” This definition has the advantage that the exact time of thyreoprivia in development is not implied, nor is a functioning thyroid gland at a later date excluded. Thus, a diagnosis of cretinism is not incompatible with the finding of a functioning thyroid, but certain characteristic developmental defects must be present before the diagnosis can be made.