Dystonia musculorum deformans is not an uncommon disorder. It is well known for its kinetic phenomena, and most, if not all, of the case reports consist of analysis of the peculiar movements which characterize the clinical syndrome. Thus far spontaneous abnormal involuntary movements, torsion spasms, disturbances in tonus and possibly a racial peculiarity have come to be looked on as the criteria for the diagnosis of the bizarre entity. This clinical conception of the disorder, originally formulated by Ziehen and Oppenheim and so closely followed by subsequent observers, stresses only the hyperkinetic phenomena. But we have found cases in which these phenomena are present only to a slight extent or almost entirely absent, and yet we believe that they form part of the disease.
It is the object in this paper, besides recording six hitherto unreported cases of dystonia musculorum deformans with atypical and unusual features, to call attention to