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Carl Ludwig von Elsässer (1808-1874) was the son of a well known physician of Stuttgart, who described the occurrence of hemophilia in a family in Hufeland's Journal der practischen Arzneykunde und Wundarzneykunst in 1824. Carl von Elsässer is best known for his studies on cholera (Stuttgart, 1832) and for the theory of the manifestations of life in compressed air (Stuttgart, 1866). Hirsh did not mention von Elsässer's book on craniotabes, which is the first extensive—perhaps a bit too extensive—account of this condition. It is entitled:,,Der Weiche Hinterkopf, Ein Beitrag zur Physiologie der ersten Kindheit. Mit Untersuchungen über die Entwicklung der Säuglingsschedels, überhaupt über die Rhachitis dieses Alters und über der Tetanus apnoicus periodicus infantum" (The Soft Posterior Head. A Contribution on the Physiology of the First Childhood with Investigation in the Development of the Infant Skull, Chiefly on the Rickets of this Age and on the Periodic Apnea of Infants).