The condition known as "family periodic paralysis," "paroxysmal paralysis" and "myoplegia periodica" was recognized as a clinical entity by Schachnowitsch1 in 1882, but the first detailed descriptions of this disease were given by Westphal2 and Oppenheim in 1885 and 1889, respectively. Despite the fact that their patient was a child, there are, to our knowledge, only a few reports of this disease in the pediatric literature. This is surprising since its unknown etiology and pathogenesis present many problems which are not only of neurologic but of general interest.
I have recently had the opportunity of studying a family with this disease, and two children, members of this family, were admitted to the hospital for observation. It seems worth while to present a short report of the disease as it has occurred in the patients' family and a description of its peculiarities in childhood. For further details, I refer