We desire to place on record a case of auricular fibrillation occurring in a child, aged 4 years. So far as we have been able to determine, this is the youngest patient hitherto reported. The data concerning the previous instances in which auricular fibrillation has been detected in children aged 10 years or less are recorded in the table.
It is apparent that rheumatic heart disease is the most common etiologic factor in the causation of auricular fibrillation in these young children, as it is in young adults.
CASE REPORT
History.—C. S., a boy, aged 4 years, was first seen in the Dispensary of the Harriet Lane Home, on Sept. 10, 1924. He was "blue" at birth and had to be resuscitated; but thereafter for a year he was apparently normal. At this time, he began to have coughing spells, during which he became very cyanotic, and his parents