Twenty-one years ago Werdnig1 published the first description of the clinical and necropsy findings of the syndrome which has since borne his name. Two years later Hoffmann2 described the pathology of one case, gave the clinical notes of three others, and confirmed Werdnig's conclusions. The literature at present contains studies of about fourteen typical, non-congenital cases, only six with histopathologic findings. The first cases recorded in the American literature were those of Bliss in 1916.
In 1900, Oppenheim3 described a syndrome, now known as amyotonia congenita, which he observed was not hereditary nor familial but rather congenital; a tendency toward improvement was characteristic, and the seat of the principal pathology was thought by him to be in the muscles. Subsequent to Oppenheim, Spiller,4 Lereboullet and Baudouin,5 and Councilman and Dunn6 reported necropsy observations confirming those of Oppenheim. Spiller and Lereboullet and Baudouin, however, found