One of the reasons thyroid function tests are now carried out within a few days of birth is to prevent a child like this slipping through the net. Pre the ?1940's when iodised salt was introduced and diets were less varied, many more children were born with thyroid disease, which if left untreated, led them to develop with impaired mental and physical function; in fact the term 'cretin' was used as the technical term to describe children with. low thyroid function. The myth that it was caused by inbreeding is largely just that, but thyroid dysfunction was, and still is a very common disease, the only difference is that now it is much more easily treated. Incidentally, there was a disease known as 'Derbyshire neck', in which it was noticed that large numbers of people, (but mainly females) developed swellings or goitres in their throats. Research showed it to be due to an underactive thyroid, caused by a lack of iodine:- the water in Derbyshire, unlike other areas, contains no iodine. Now, if any of these untreated women gave birth to babies, their risk of growing up physically and mentally impaired was very high. It is thought that this disease was the reason there were so many jokes about ' village idiots'. Moya Page nee BANTING, Lincoln, UK researching BANTINGs and PERREN,PEREN, PERYN, PERRIN, PERIN ----- Original Message ----- From: <Libran108@aol.com> To: <WESSEX-PLUS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 4:26 PM Subject: [WSX] Handicap Imbicile on Census On the 1881 Census one of my ancestors children is listed as "Handicap Imbicile" . Considering wording was a lot different back then what do you think the definition of "Imbicile" was ? Will