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The subject of spasmophilia has been attracting increased attention in the last decade. The author states that spasmophilia is a condition that usually accompanies rickets. He first discusses rickets, then devotes forty-one pages to a discussion of spasmophilia which he describes as a condition in which increased electrical and mechanical excitability is found. He states that bottle-fed babies are practically the only ones affected. As a causative factor he mentions the factors which produce rickets; more specifically, he attributes the condition to a lack of calcium and phosphate salts. He then describes the various types of spasmophilia, such as latent tetany, laryngospasm, general convulsions, tonic muscle spasms, bronchotetany and gastrotetany.
Later he discusses the differential diagnosis and finally treatment, in which he advocates giving calcium and parathyroid with the general hygienic conditions which are employed in rickets. The rest of the book discusses infant feeding. The book is obviously intended